
Class J. S> JMJL S 

Copyright N" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SPECIAL METHOD 
IN PRIMARY READING 



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SPECIAL METHOD 



IN 



PRIMARY READING AND ORAL 
WORK WITH STORIES 



BY 



CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D. 

DIRECTOR OF PRACTICE DEPARTMENT, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, DE KALB, ILLINOIS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1903 

All rights reserved 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received 

JUL 27 1903 

Copyright Entry 

cuss CtJ XXc No 

COPY B. 



f,'-^ 
v^^*'^ 



Copyright, 1903, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotypcd July, 1903. 



• ^ • • « • 



NottooolJ 13rt8« 

J. S. Cuthing St Co. - Berwick ft Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mail., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

This book attempts the discussion of two very 
important problems in primary education. First, the 
oral work in the handUng of stories, and second, the 
introduction to the art of reading in the earliest 
school work. The very close relation between the 
oral work in stories and the exercises in reading in 
the first three years in school is quite fully explained. 
The oral work in story-telling has gained a great 
importance in recent years, but has not received 
much discussion from writers of books on method. 

Following this " Special Method in Primary Read- 
ing," a second volume, called the "Special Method 
in the Reading of Complete EngHsh Classics in the 
Grades of the Common School," completes the dis- 
cussion of reading and literature in the intermediate 
and grammar grades. 

Both of the books of Special Method are an ap- 
plication of the ideas discussed in " The Principles 
of General Method" and "The Method of the 
Recitation." 



Vi PREFACE 

Still Other volumes of Special Method in Geog- 
raphy, History, and Natural Science furnish the out- 
lines of the courses of study in these subjects, and 
also a full discussion of the value of the material 
selected and of the method of treatment. 

At the close of each chapter and at the end of the 
book a somewhat complete graded Hst of books, for 
the use of both pupils and teachers, is given. The 
same plan is followed in all the books of this series, 
so that teachers may be able to supply themselves 
with the best helps with as little trouble as possible. 

CHARLES A. McMURRY. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
The Reason for Oral Work in Stories 



rAGB 

I 



CHAPTER II 
The Basis of Skill in Oral Work . . . . i6 

CHAPTER III 
First Grade Stories 47 

CHAPTER IV 
Second Grade Stories . . • • • -75 

CHAPTER V 
Third Grade Stories . . - • • • • io3 

CHAPTER VI 
Primary Reading through Incidental Exercises 

AND Games ^^^ 

CHAPTER VII 
Method in Primary Reading '73 

CHAPTER VIII 

List of Books for Primary Grades .... 190 

vii 



SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY 
READING 

CHAPTER I 
The Reason for Oral Work in Stories 

The telling and reading of stories to children in 
early years, before they have mastered the art of 
reading, is of such importance as to awaken the 
serious thought of parents and teachers. To older 
people it is a source of constant surprise — the at- 
tentive interest which children bestow upon stories. 
Almost any kind of a story will command their wide- 
awake thought. But the tale which they can fully 
understand and enjoy has a unique power to concen- 
trate their mental energy. There is an undivided, 
unalloyed absorption of mind in good stories which 
augurs well for all phases of later effort. To get 
children into this habit of undivided mental energy, 
of singleness of purpose in study, is most promising. 
In primary grades, the fluttering, scatter-brained tru- 
ancy of thought is the chronic obstacle to success in 
study. 

The telling or reading of stories to children natu- 



2 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

rally begins at home, before the little ones are old 
enough for school. The mother and father, the aunts 
and uncles, and any older person who delights in 
children, find true comfort and entertainment in re- 
hearsing the famous stories to children. The Mother 
Goose, the fables, the fairy tales, the *' Arabian 
Nights," Eugene Field's and Stevenson's poems of 
child life, the Bible stories, the myths, and some of 
the old ballads have untold treasures for children. If 
one has a voice for singing the old melodies, the 
charm of music intensifies the effect. Little ones 
quickly memorize what delights them, and not sel- 
dom, after two or three readings, children of three 
and four years will be heard repeating whole poems 
or large parts of them. The repetition of the songs 
and stories till they become thoroughly famihar gives 
them their full educative effect. They become a 
part of the permanent furniture of the mind. If the 
things which the children learn in early years have 
been well selected from the real treasures of the past 
(of which there is a goodly store), the seeds of true 
culture have been deeply sown in their affections. 

The opportunities of the home for good story- 
telling are almost boundless. Parents who perceive 
its worth and are willing to take time for it, find in 
this early period greater opportunity to mould the 
lives of children and put them into sympathetic touch 
with things of beauty and value than at any other 
time. At this age children are well-nigh wholly at 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 3 

the mercy of their elders. They will take what we 
give them and take it at its full worth or worthless- 
ness. They absorb these things as the tender plant 
absorbs rain and sunshine. 

The kindergarten has naturally found in the story 
one of its chief means of effectiveness. Stories, 
songs, and occupations are its staples. DeaUng with 
this same period of early childhood, before the more 
taxing work of the school begins, it finds that the 
children's minds move with that same freedom and 
spontaneity in these stories with which their bodies 
and physical energies disport themselves in games 
and occupations. 

._ It is fortunate for childhood that we have such 
wholesome and healthful material, which is fitted 
to give a child's mental action a well-rounded com- 
pleteness. His will, his sensibility, and his knowing 
faculty, all in one harmonious whole, are brought 
into full action. In short, not a fragment but the 
whole child is focussed and concentrated upon one 
absorbing object of thought. 

The value of the oral treatment of stories is found 
in the greater clearness and interest with which they 
can be presented orally. There is a keener realism, 
a closer approximation to experimental facts, to the 
situations, the hardships, to the sorrows and triumphs 
of persons. The feehngs and impulses of the actors 
in the story are felt more sharply. The reality of the 
surrounding conditions and difficulties is presented so 



4 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

that a child transports himself by the power of sym- 
pathy and imagination into the scenes described. 

There is no way by which this result can be accom- 
pHshed in early years except by the oral presentation 
of stories. Until the children have learned to read 
and have acquired sufficient mastery of the art of 
reading so that it is easy and fluent, there is no way 
by which they can get at good stories for themselves. 
Average children require about three years to acquire 
this mastery of the reading art. Not many children 
read stories from books, with enjoyment and appre- 
ciation, till they are nine or ten years old ; but from 
the age of four to ten they are capable of receiving 
an infinite amount of instruction and mental stimulus 
from hearing good stories. In fact, many of the best 
stories ever produced in the history of the world can 
be thoroughly enjoyed by children before they have 
learned to read. This is true of Grimm's and Ander- 
sen's stories, of the myths of Hiawatha and Norse- ^ 
land, and of the early Greeks, of the Bible stories, 
the "Arabian Nights," "Robin Hood," besides many 
other stories, poems, ballads, and biographies which 
are among the best things in our literature. 

In these early years the minds of children may be 
enriched with a furnishment of ideas of much value 
for all their future use, a sort of capital well invested, 
which will bring rich returns. Minds early fertilized 
with this variety of thought material become more 
flexible, productive, and acquisitive. 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 5 

For many years, and even centuries, it was sup- 
posed that early education could furnish children with 
little except the forms and instruments of knowledge, 
the tools of acquisition, such as ability to read, spell, 
and write, and to use simple numbers. But the sus- 
ceptibiUty of younger children to the powerful cul- 
ture influence of story, poem, and nature study, was 
overlooked. 

We now have good reason to believe that there 
is no period when the educative and refining influ- 
ences of good literature in the form of poems and 
story can be made so effective as in this early period 
from four to ten years. That period which has been 
long almost wholly devoted to the dry formalities and 
mechanics of knowledge, to the dull and oftentimes 
benumbing drills of alphabets, spelling, and arithmeti- 
cal tables, is found to be capable of a fruitful study 
of stories, fables, and myths, and an indefinite exten- 
sion of ideas and experiences in nature observation. 

But the approach to these sunny fields of varied 
and vivid experience is not through books, except 
as the teacher's mind has assimilated their materials 
and prepared them for lively presentation. 

The oral speech through which the stories are 
given to children is completely famihar to them, so 
that they, unencumbered by the forms of language, 
can give their undivided thought to the story. Oral 
speech is, therefore, the natural channel through 
which stories should come in early years. The book 



6 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

is at first wholly foreign to them, and it takes them 
three years or more of greater or less painful effort 
to get such easy mastery of printed forms as to gain 
ready access to thought in books. A book, when 
first put into the hands of a child, is a complete 
obstruction to thought. The oral story, on the con- 
trary, is a perfectly transparent medium of thought. 
A child can see the meaning of a story through oral 
speech as one sees a landscape through a clear win- 
dow-pane. If a child, therefore, up to the age of 
ten, is to get many and delightsome views into the 
fruitful fields of story-land, this miniature world of 
all realities, this repository of race ideas, it must 
be through oral speech which he has already acquired 
in the years of babyhood. 

It is an interesting blunder of teachers, and one 
that shows their unreflecting acceptance of tradi- 
tional customs, to assume that the all-absorbing prob- 
lem of primary instruction is the acquisition of a new 
book language (the learning to read), and to ignore 
that rich mother tongue, already abundantly famil- 
iar, as an avenue of acquisition and culture. But we 
are now well convinced that the ability to read is an 
instrument of culture, not culture itself, and prima- 
rily the great object of education is to inoculate 
the children with the ideas of our civilization. The 
forms of expression are also of great value, but they 
are secondary and incidental as compared with the 
world of ideas. 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES J 

There is an intimate connection between learning 
to read and the oral treatment of stories in primary 
schools which is very interesting and suggestive to 
the teacher. Routine teachers may think it a waste 
of time to stop for the oral presentation of stories. 
But the more thoughtful and sympathetic teacher 
will think it better to stimulate the child's mind than 
to cram his memory. The young mind fertilized by 
ideas is quicker to learn the printed forms than a 
mind barren of thought. Yet this proposition needs 
to be seen and illustrated in many forms. 

Children should doubtless make much progress in 
learning to read in the first year of school. But 
coincident with these exercises in primary reading, 
and, as a general thing, preliminary to them, is a 
lively and interested acquaintance with the best 
stories. It is a fine piece of educative work to cul- 
tivate in children, at the beginning of school life, a 
realrappreeiation and enjoyment of a few good stories. 
These stories, thus rendered familiar, and others of 
similar tone and quality, may serve well as a part of 
the reading lessons. It is hardly possible to cultivate 
this literary taste in the reading books alone, un- 
relieved by oral work. The primers and first readers, 
when examined, will give ample proof of this state- 
ment. In spite of the utmost effort of skilled 
primary teachers to make attractive books for pri- 
mary children, our primers and first readers show 
unmistakable signs of their formal and mechanical 
character. They are essentially drill books. 



8 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

It seems well, therefore, to have in primary 
schools two kinds of work in connection with story 
and reading, the oral work in story-telling, reproduc- 
tion, expression, etc., and the drill exercises in learn- 
ing to read. The former will keep up a wide-awake 
interest in the best thought materials suitable for 
children, the latter will gradually acquaint them with 
the necessary forms of written and printed language. 
Moreover, the interest aroused in the stories is con- 
stantly transferring itself to the reading lessons and 
giving greater spirit and vitality even to the primary 
efforts at learning to read. In discussing the method 
of primary reading we shall have occasion to men- 
tion the varied devices of games, activities, drawings, 
dramatic action, blackboard exercises, and picture 
work, by which an alert primary teacher puts life 
and motive into early reading work, but fully as 
important as all these things put together is the 
growing insight and appreciation for good stories. 
When a child makes the discovery, as Hugh Miller 
said, ** that learning to read is learning to get stories 
out of books " he has struck the chord that should 
vibrate through all his future life. The real motive 
for reading is to get something worth the effort of 
reading. Even if it takes longer to accomplish the 
result in this way, the result when accomplished is 
in all respects more valuable. But it is probable that 
children will learn to read fully as soon who spend 
a good share of their time in oral story work. 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 



In discussing the literary materials used in the first 
four grades, we suggest the following grading of 
certain large groups of literary matter, and the rela- 
tion of oral work to the reading in each subsequent 
grade is clearly marked. 



ist Grade. 



2d Grade. 



^d Grade. 



Oral Work. 
Games, Mother Goose. 
Fables, Fairy Tales. 
Nature Myths, Child Poems. 

Robinson Crusoe. 

Hiawatha. 

Seven Little Sisters. 



Reading. 
Lessons based on Games, etc. 
Board Exercises. 
Primers, First Readers. 
Simple Myths, Stories, etc. 

Fables, Fairy Tales. 
Myths and Poems. 
Second Readers. 
Hiawatha Primer. 



Greek and Norse Myths. Robinson Crusoe. 

Ballads and Legendary Stories. Andersen's & Grimm's Tales. 

Ulysses, Jason, Siegfried. Child's Garden of Verses. 

Old Testament Stories. Third Readers. 

4th Grade. American Pioneer History Greek and Norse Myths. 

Stories. Historical Ballads. 

Early Biographical Stories of Ulysses, Arabian Nights. 

Europe, as Alfred, Solon, Hiawatha, Wonder Book. 
Arminius, etc. 

This close dependence of reading proper, in earlier 
years, upon the oral treatment of stories as a pre- 
liminary, is based fundamentally upon the idea that 
suitable and interesting thought matter is the true 
basis of progress in reading, and that the strengthen- 
ing of the taste for good books is a much greater 
thing than the mere acquisition of the art of reading. 
The motive with which children read or try to learn 
to read is, after all, of the greatest consequence. 



10 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

The old notion that children must first learn to 
read and then find, through the mastery of this art, 
the entrance to literature is exactly reversed. First 
awaken a desire for things worth reading, and then 
incorporate these and similar stories into the regular 
reading exercises as far as possible. 

In accordance with this plan, children, by the time 
they are nine or ten years old, will become heartily 
acquainted with three or four of the great classes 
of literature, the fables, fairy tales, myths, and such 
world stories as Crusoe, Aladdin, Hiawatha, and 
Ulysses. Moreover, the oral treatment will bring 
these persons and actions closer to their thought and 
experience than the later reading alone could do. 
In fact, if children have reached their tenth year 
without enjoying those great forms of literature that 
are appropriate to childhood, there is small prospect 
that they will ever acquire a taste for them. They 
have passed beyond the age where a liking for 
such literature is most easily and naturally cultivated. 
They move on to other things. They have passed 
through one great stage of education and have 
emerged with a meagre and barren outfit. 

The importance of oral work as a lively means of 
entrance to studies is seen also in other branches 
besides literature. 

In geography and history the first year or two of 
introductory study is planned for the best schools in 
the form of oral narrative and discussion. Home 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES II 

geography in the third or fourth year, and history 
stories in the fourth and fifth years of school, are 
best presented without a text book by the teacher. 
Although the children have already overcome, to 
some extent, the difficulty of reading, so great is the 
power of oral presentation and discussion to vivify 
and realize geographical and historical scenes that 
the book is discarded at first for the oral treat- 
ment. 

In natural science also, from the first year on the 
teacher must employ an oral method of treatment. 
The use of books is not only impossible, but even 
after the children have learned to read, it would 
defeat the main purpose of instruction to make books 
the chief means of study. The ability to observe 
and discern things, to use their own senses in dis- 
criminating and comparing objects, in experiments 
and investigations, is the fundamental purpose. 

In language lessons, again, it is much better to use 
a book only as a guide and to handle the lessons 
orally, collecting examples and stories from other 
studies as the basis for language discussions. 

It is apparent from this brief survey that an oral 
method is appropriate to the early treatment of all 
the common school studies, that it gives greater 
vivacity, intensity, simplicity, and clearness to all 
such introductory studies. 

The importance of story-telling and the initiation 
of children into the delightful fields of literature 



12 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

through the teacher rather than through the book 
are found to harmonize with a mode of treatment 
common to all the studies in early years. 

In this connection it is interesting to observe that 
the early literature of the European nations was 
developed and communicated to the people by word 
of mouth. The Homeric songs were chanted or 
sung at the courts of princes. At Athens, in her 
palmy days, the great dramatists and poets either 
recited their productions to the people or had them 
presented to thousands of citizens in the open-air 
theatres. Even historians like Thucidides read or 
recited their great histories before the assembled 
people. In the early history of England, Scotland, 
and other countries, the minstrels sang their ballads 
and epic poems in the baronial halls and thus de- 
veloped the early forms of imusic and poetry. 
Shakespeare wrote his dramas for the theatre, and 
he seems to have paid no attention at all to their 
appearance in book form, never revising them or 
putting them into shape for the press. 

This practice of all the early races of putting their 
great literature before the people by song, dramatic 
action, and word of mouth is very suggestive to the 
teacher. The power and effectiveness of this mode 
of presentation, not only in early times but even in 
the highly civilized cities of London and Athens, is 
unmistakable proof of the educative value of such 
modes of teaching. This is only another indication 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 1 3 

of the kinship of child life with race life, which has 
been emphasized by many great thinkers. 

The oral method offers a better avenue for all vig- 
orous modes of expression than the reading book. 
It can be observed that the general tendency of the 
book is toward a formal, expressionless style in 
young readers. Go into a class where the teacher is 
handling a story orally and you will see her falHng 
naturally into all forms of vivid narrative and pres- 
entation, gesture, facial expression, versatile intona- 
tion, blackboard sketching and picture work, the 
impersonation of characters in dialogue, dramatic 
action, and general liveliness of manner. The chil- 
dren naturally take up these same activities and modes 
of uttering themselves. Even without the suggestion 
of teachers, little children express themselves in such 
actions, attitudes, and impersonations. This may be 
often observed in little boys and girls of kindergarten 
age, when telling their experiences to older persons, 
or when playing among themselves. The freedom, 
activity, and vivacity of children is, indeed, in strong 
contrast to the apathetic, expressionless, monotonous 
style of many grown people, including teachers. 

But the oral treatment of stories has a tendency to 
work out into modes of activity even more effective 
than those just described. 

In recent years, since so much oral work has been 
done in elementary schools, children have been en- 
couraged also to express themselves freely in black- 



14 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

board drawings and in pencil work at their desks by 
way of illustrating the stories told. Moreover, in 
paper cutting, to represent persons and scenes, in 
clay modelling, to mould objects presented, and 
in constructive and building efforts, in making forts, 
tents, houses, tools, dress, and in showing up modes 
of life, the children have found free scope for their 
physical and mental activities. These have not only 
led to greater clearness and vividness in their men- 
tal conceptions, but have opened out new fields of self- 
activity and inventiveness. 

So long as work in reading and literature was con- 
fined to the book exercises, nearly all these modes of 
expression were little employed and even tabooed. 

Finally, the free use of oral narrative in the litera- 
ture of early years, in story-telling and its attendant 
modes of expression, opens up to primary teachers 
a rare opportunity of becoming genuine educators. 
There was a time, and it still continues with many 
primary teachers, when teaching children to read 
was a matter of pure routine, of formal verbal drills 
and repetitions, as tiresome to the teacher, if possible, 
as to the little ones. But now that literature, with its 
treasures of thought and feeling, of culture and re- 
finement, has become the staple of the primary 
school, teachers have a wide and rich field of inspir- 
ing study. The mastery and use of much of the 
preferred literature which has dropped down to us 
out of the past is the peculiar function of the pri- 



THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 1 5 

mary teacher. Contact with great minds, like those 
of Kingsley, Ruskin, Andersen, the Grimm brothers, 
Stevenson, Dickens, Hawthorne, De Foe, Browning, 
^sop. Homer, and the unknown authors of many of 
the best ballads, epics, and stories, is enough to give 
the primary teacher a sense of the dignity of her 
work. On the other hand, the opportunity to give to 
children the free and versatile development of their 
active powers is an equal encouragement. 

Teachers who have taken up with zeal this great 
problem of introducing children to their full birth- 
right, the choice literature of the world suited to their 
years, and of linking this story work with primary 
reading so as to give it vitality, — such teachers have 
found school life assuming new and unwonted 
charms ; the great problems of the educator have 
become theirs; the broadened opportunity for the 
acquisition of varied skill and professional efficiency 
has given a strong ambitious tone to their work. 



CHAPTER II 
The Basis of Skill in Oral Work 

Accepting the statement that skill in oral presen- 
tation of a story is a prime demand in early educa- 
tion, the important question for teachers is how to 
cultivate their resources in this phase of teaching, 
how to become good story-tellers. 

It may be remarked that, for the great majority of 
people, story-telling is not a gift but an acquisition. 
There are, of course, occasional geniuses, but they 
may be left out of consideration. They are not 
often found in the schoolroom any more than in 
other walks of life. What we need is a practical, 
sensible development of a power which we all possess 
in varying degrees. Nor is it the fluent, volatile, 
verbose talker who makes a good oral teacher, but 
rather one who can see and think clearly : one who 
knows how to combine his ideas and experiences into 
clear and connected series of thought. 

We may proceed, therefore, to a discussion of the 
needs and resources of a good story-teller. 

I. Without much precaution it may be stated that 
he should have a rich experience in all the essential 
realities of human life. This covers a large field of 

i6 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 1 7 

common things and refers rather to contact with life 
than to mere book knowledge. Yet it is the depth, 
heartiness, and variety of knowledge rather than 
the source from which it springs that concerns us. 
Books often give us just this deep penetrating ex- 
perience, as soon as we learn how to select and 
use them. We need to know human life directly 
and in all sorts of acts, habits, feelings, motives, 
and conditions, — something as Shakespeare knew it, 
only within the compass of our narrower possibili- 
ties. Likewise the physical world with its visible 
and invisible forces and objects besetting us on every 
side. These things must impress themselves upon 
us vividly in detail as well as in the bulk. The hand 
that has been calloused by skill-producing labor, the 
back that aches with burdens bravely borne, the 
brain that has sweat with strong effort, are expres- 
sions of this kind of knowledge of the world. Clear- 
grained perceptions are acquired from many sources : 
from travel, labor, books, reflection, sickness, observa- 
tion. I go to-day into a small shop where heavy oak 
beer-kegs are made, and watch the man working this 
refractory material into water-tight kegs that will 
stand hard usage at the hands of hard drinkers for 
twenty years. If my mind has been at work as I 
watch this man for an hour, with his heavy rough 
staves made by hand, his tools and machines, his 
skill and strong muscular action, the amount and 
profit of his labor, that man's work has gone deep 
c 



l8 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

into my whole being. I can almost live his life in 
an hour's time, and feel its contact with the acute 
problems of our modern industrial life. That is a 
kind of knowledge and experience worth fully as 
much as a sermon in Trinity Church or a University 
lecture. 

The teacher needs a great store of these concrete 
facts and illustrations. Without them he is a car- 
penter without tools or boards. He needs to know 
industries, occupations, good novels, typical life 
scenes, sunsets, sorrows, joys, inventions, poets, 
farmers — all such common, tangible things. Even 
from fools and blackguards he can get experiences 
that will last him a lifetime if they only strike in and 
do not flare off into nothingness. 

Social experience in all sorts of human natures, 
disposition, and environing circumstance is immedi- 
ately valuable to the teacher. 

Close acquaintance with children, with their early 
feelings and experiences, with their timidity or bold- 
ness, with their whims or conceits, their dislikes and 
preferences, their enthusiasms and interests, with their 
peculiar home and neighborhood experiences and 
surroundings, with their games and entertainments, 
with the books and papers they read, with their dolls 
and playthings, their vacations and outings, with 
their pets and playhouses, with their tools and 
mechanical contrivances — all these and other like 
realities of child life put the teacher on a footing 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 1 9 

of possible appreciation and sympathy with children. 
These are the materials and facts which a good 
teacher knows how to work up in oral recitations. 
Of course the kindly, sympathetic social mood 
which is not fretted by others' frailties and perversi- 
ties, but, like Irving or Addison, exhibits a liberal 
charity or humorous affection for all things human, is 
a fortunate possession or acquisition for the teacher. 
/ 2. It may be said also, without fear of violent con- 
"^radiction, that a teacher needs to be a master of the 
story he is about to tell. It may be well to spread 
out to view the important things necessary to such a 
mastery. The reading over of the story till its facts 
and episodes have become familiar and can be repro- 
duced in easy narrative is at least a minimum re- 
quirement. Even this moderate demand is much 
more serious than the old text-book routine in history 
or reading, where the teacher, with one eye on the 
book, the other on the class, and his finger at the 
place, managed to get the questions before the class 
in a fixed order. 

Let us look a little beneath the surface of the 
story. What is its central idea, the author's aim or 
motive in producing it ? Not a little effort and reflec- 
tion may be necessary to get at the bottom of this 
question. Some of the most famous stories, like " Alad- 
din," "Gulliver's Travels," and the "City Musicians," 
may be so wild and wayward as to elude or blunt the 
point of this question. The story may have a hard 



/ 



20 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

shell, but the sharp teeth of reflection will get at the 
sweet kernel within, else the story is not worth while. 
In some of the stories, like " Baucis and Philemon," 
"The Great Stone Face," "The Pied Piper of Hame- 
lin," "The Discontented Pine Tree," and "Hiawa- 
tha's Fasting," the main truth is easily reflected 
from the story and caught up even by the children. 

This need for getting at the heart of the story is 
clearly seen in all the subsequent work. It is the 
exercise of such a critical judgment which qualifies 
the teacher to discriminate between good and poor 
stories. In the treatment of the story the essential 
topics are laid out upon the basis of this controlling 
idea or motive. The leading aims and carefully 
worded questions point toward this central truth. 
The side lights and attendant episodes are arranged 
with reference to it like the scenes in a drama. The 
effort to get at the central truth and the related ideas 
is a sifting-out process, a mode of assimilating and 
mastering the story more thorough-going than the 
mere memorizing of the facts and words for the pur- 
pose of narration. The thought-getting self-activity 
and common-sense logic which are involved in this 
mode of assimilating a story are good for both pupils 
and teacher. 

The mastery of a story needed by an oral teacher 
implies abundance of resource in illustrative device 
and explanation. When children fail to grasp an 
idea, it is necessary to fall back upon some familiar 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 21 

object or experience not mentioned in the book. 
Emergencies arise which tax the teacher's ingenuity 
to the utmost. Even the children will raise queries 
that baffle his wit. In preparing a story for the 
classroom it is necessary to see it from many sides, 
to foresee these problems and difficulties. Often- 
times the collateral knowledge derived from history 
or geography or from similar episodes in other stories 
will suggest the solution. 

It is a favorite maxim of college teachers and of 
those who deal mostly with adults or older pupils, 
that if a person knows a thing he can teach it. 
Leaving out of account the numerous cases of those 
who are well posted in their subjects, but cannot 
teach, it is well to note the scope, variety, and thor- 
oughness of knowledge necessary to a good teacher 
to handle it skilfully with younger children. Besides 
the thorough knowledge of the subject which scholars 
have demanded, it requires an equally clear knowl- 
edge of the mental resources of children, the lan- 
guage which they can understand, the things which 
attract their interest and attention, and the ways of 
holding the attention of a group of children of differ- 
ent capacities, temper, and disposition. Any dog- 
matic professor who thinks he can teach the story of 
" Cinderella " or Andersen's " Five Peas in the Pod," 
because he has a full knowledge of the facts of the 
story, should make trial of his skill upon a class of 
twenty children in the first grade. We suggest, how- 



22 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

ever, that he do it quietly, without inviting in his 
friends to witness his triumph. 

No, the mastery of the subject needed for an effec- 
tive handling of it in oral work is different and is 
greater than they have yet dreamed of who think 
that mere objective knowledge is all that is needed 
by a teacher. The application of knowledge to life 
is generally difficult, more taxing by far than the 
mere acquisition of facts and principles. But the 
use of one's knowledge in the work of instructing 
young children, in getting them to acquire and assim- 
ilate it, is perhaps the most difficult of all forms of 
the application of knowledge. It is difficult because 
it is so complex. To think clearly and accurately on 
some topic for one's single self is not easy, but 
to get twenty children of varying capacities and 
weaknesses, with their stumbling, acquisitive, flaring 
minds, to keep step along one clear line of thought 
is a piece of daring enterprise. 

The mastery of the story, therefore, for successful 
oral work, must be detailed, comprehensive, many- 
sided, and adapted to the fluttering thoughts of child- 
hood. 

3. The chief instrument through which the teacher 
communicates the story is oral speech, and this he 
needs to wield with discriminating skill and power. 
Preachers and lecturers, when called upon to talk to 
children, nearly always talk over their heads, using 
language not appropriate and comprehensible to 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 23 

children. Those accustomed to deal with little folks 
are quickly sensitive to this amateur awkwardness. 
Young teachers just out of the higher schools make 
the same blunder. They are also inclined to think 
that fluency and verbosity are a sign of power. But 
such false tinsel makes no impression upon children 
except confusion of thought. Children require 
simple, direct words, clearly defined in thought and 
grounded upon common experience and conviction. 
Facts and realities should stand behind the words of 
a teacher. What he seeks to marshal before chil- 
dren is people and things. Words should serve as 
photographs of objects; instantaneous views of expe- 
riences. In some social and diplomatic circles words 
are said to conceal thought, but this kind of verbal 
diplomacy has no place in schools. 

It is an interesting question how far the language 
and style of the authors should be preserved by the 
narrator. It would be an error to forbid the exact 
use of the author's words and an equal error to 
require it. It seems reasonable to say that the 
teacher should become absorbed in the author's style 
and mode of presenting the story. This will lead to 
a close approximation to the author's words, without 
any slavish imitation. In the midst of oral presenta- 
tion and discussion it would be impossible to hold 
strictly to the original. The teacher's own language 
and conception of the story will press in to simplify 
and clarify the meaning. No one holds strictly to a 



24 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

literary style in telling a story. Conversational ideas 
and original momentary impulses of thought demand 
their own forms of utterance. And yet it is well to 
appropriate the style and expression of the writer so 
as to accustom the children to the best forms. A 
few very apt and forcible sentences will be found in 
any good author which the teacher will naturally 
employ. 

But the teacher must have freedom. When he 
has once thoroughly appropriated the story he must 
give vent to his own spontaneity and power. Later, 
when the children come to read these stories, they 
will enjoy them in their full literary form. 

4. The power of clear and interesting presentation 
of a story is one of the chief professional acquisitions 
of a good primary teacher. It involves many things 
besides language, including liveliness of manner, 
gesture, facial expression, action, dramatic imperso- 
nation, skill in blackboard illustration, good humor 
and tact in working with children, a strong imagina- 
tion, and a real appreciation for the literature adapted 
to children. 

Perhaps the fundamental need is simplicity and 
clearness of thought and language combined with a 
pleasing and attractive manner. Vague and incom- 
prehensible thoughts and ideas are all out of place. 
The teacher should be strict with himself in this 
matter, and while reading and mastering the story, 
should use compulsion upon himself to arrive at an 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 2$ 

unmistakable clearness of thought. The objects, 
buildings, palaces, woods, caves, animals, persons, 
and places should be sharply imaged by the imagina- 
tion ; the feelings and passions of the actors should 
be keenly reaHzed. Often a vague and uncertain 
conception needs to be scanned, the passage reread, 
and the notion framed into clearness. In describing 
the palace of the sleeping beauty, begirt with woods, 
the sentinels standing statuelike at the portal, the 
lords and ladies at their employments, the teacher 
should think out the entrance way, hall, rooms, and 
persons of the palace so clearly that his thought and 
language will not stumble over uncertainties. Trans- 
parent clearness and directness of thought are the 
result of effort and circumspection. They are well 
worth the pains required to gain them. A teacher 
who thinks clearly will generate clear habits of 
thought in children. 

The power of interesting narrative and description 
is not easily explained. It is a thing not readily 
analyzed into its elements. Perhaps the best way to 
find out what it is may be discovered by reading the 
great story-tellers, such as Macaulay, Irving, Kings- 
ley, De Foe, Hawthorne, Homer, Plutarch, Scott, 
and Dickens. Novelists like George Eliot, Vic- 
tor Hugo, Cooper, Scott, and Dickens, possess 
this secret also, and even some of the historians, 
as Herodotus, Fiske, Green, Parkman, Motley, and 
others. It is not so important that a teacher should 



26 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

give a cold analysis of their qualities as that he 
should fall insensibly into the vivid and realistic style 
of the best story-tellers. One who has read Pyle's 
Robin Hood stories until they are familiar will, to 
a considerable extent, appropriate his fertile and 
happy Old-English style, the sturdy English spirit of 
bold Robin, his playful humor, and his apt utterance 
of homely truths. 

There are certain qualities that stand out prom- 
inently in the good story-tellers. They are simple 
and concrete in their descriptions, they deal very 
little in general, vague statements or abstractions, 
they hold closely to the persons of the story in the 
midst of interesting surroundings, they are profuse 
in the use of distinct figures of speech, appealing to 
the fancy or imagination. They often have a humor- 
ous vein which gives infinite enjoyment and spreads 
a happy charity throughout the world. 

The art of graphic illustration on the blackboard 
is in almost constant demand in oral work. Even 
rude and untechnical sketches by teachers who have 
no acquired skill in artistic drawing are of the great- 
est value in giving a quick and accurate perception 
of places, buildings, persons, and surrounding condi- 
tions of a story or action. The map of Crusoe's 
island, the drawings to represent his tent, cave, boat, 
country residence, fortifications, dress, utensils, and 
battles are natural and simple modes of realizing 
clearly his labors and adventures. They save much 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 2/ 

verbal description and circumlocution. The teacher 
needs to acquire absolute boldness and freedom in 
using such illustrative devices. The children will, 
of course, catch this spirit, as they are by nature 
inclined to use drawing as a mode of expression. 

A similar freedom in the teacher is necessary in 
the use of bodily action, gesture, and facial expression 
in story-telling. The teacher needs to become nat- 
ural, childHke, and mobile in these things ; for chil- 
dren are naturally much given to such demonstrations 
in the expression of their thought. Little girls of 
three and four years in the home, when free from 
self-consciousness, are marvellously and delightfully 
expressive by means of eyes, gestures, hands, and 
arms and whole bodily attitudes. Why should not 
this naive expressiveness be gently fostered in thb 
school ? Indeed it is, and in many schools the little 
ones are as happy and whole-souled and spontaneous 
in their modes of expression as we have suggested. 

Dramatization, if cultivated, extends a teacher's 
gamut of expressiveness. Our inability or slowness 
to respond to this suggestion is a sign of a certain nar- 
rowness or cramp in our culture and training. In Nor- 
mal schools where young teachers are trained in the art 
of reading, the dramatic instinct should be strongly 
developed. The power to other one's self in dra- 
matic action, to assume and impersonate a variety of 
characters, is a real expression and enlargement of 
the personality. It demands sympathy and feeling as 



2§ SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

well as intellectual insight. The study and reading 
of the great dramatists, the seeing of good plays, 
amateur efforts in this direction, the frequent oral 
reading of Shakespeare, Dickens, and other dram- 
atists and novelists will cultivate and enlarge the 
teacher's power in this worthy and wholesome art. 

The use of good pictures is also an important 
means of adding to the beauty and clearness of 
stories. The pictures of Indian life in " Hiawatha," the 
illustrated editions of " Robinson Crusoe," the copies 
of ancient works of art in some editions of the Greek 
myths, Howard Pyle's illustrated " Robin Hood," and 
other books of this character add greatly to the vivid- 
ness of ideas. Such pictures should be handled with 
care, not distributed promiscuously among the chil- 
dren while the lesson is going on. The teacher needs 
to study a picture, and discuss it intelligently with the 
children, asking questions which bring out its repre- 
sentative qualities. 

It is evident the skilful oral presentation of a story 
calls out no small degree of clear knowledge, force 
of language, illustrative device, dramatic instinct, and 
a freedom and versatility of action both mental and 
physical. 

5. A clear outline of leading points in a story is a 
source of strength to the teacher and the basis later 
of good reproductive work by the children. The 
short stories in the first grade hardly need a formal 
outline, and even in second grade the sequence of 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 29 

ideas in a story is often so simple and easy that out- 
lines of leading topics may not be needed. But in 
third and fourth grade it is well in the preliminary 
study and mastery of a story to divide it up into 
clearly marked segments, with a distinctive title for 
each division. It is difficult to get teachers to do this 
kind of close logical work, and still more difficult to 
have them remember it in the midst of oral presenta- 
tion and discussion. If the main points of the story 
as thus outlined are placed upon the blackboard as 
the narrative advances, it keeps in mind a clear sur- 
vey of the whole and serves as the best basis for the 
children's reproduction of the story. It compels 
both teacher and pupils to keep to a close logical 
connection of ideas and a sifting out of the story to 
get at the main points. Without these well-con- 
structed outlines the memory of the story is apt to 
fall into uncertainty and confusion, and the children's 
reproduction becomes fragmentary and disorderly. 
Experience shows that teachers are prone to be loose 
and careless in bringing their stories into such a well- 
ordered series of distinct topics. It is really a sign 
of a thoughtful, logical, and judicious mastery of a 
subject to have thrown it thus into its prominent 
points of narration. Oral work often fails of effec- 
tiveness and thoroughness, because of these careless 
habits of teachers. Such an outline, when put into 
the children's regular note-books, serves as the best 
basis for later surveys and reviews. 



30 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

6. The oral narration and presentation of stories 
has a curious way of being turned into development 
lessons, in which the teacher deals in questions and 
problematic situations and the children work out 
many of the facts and incidents of the story by a 
series of guesses and inferences. These are well 
known as development lessons, and they are capable 
of exhibiting the highest forms of excellence in teach- 
ing or the most drivelling waste of time. The subject 
is a hard one to handle, but it needs a clear and 
simple elucidation as much as any problem in the 
teaching profession. Generally speaking it is better 
for young teachers not to launch out recklessly upon 
the full tide of development instruction. It is better 
to learn the handling of the craft on quieter waters. 
Development work needs to be well charted. The 
varying winds and currents, storms and calms, need 
to be studied and experienced before one may become 
a good ship's master. Let young teachers first 
acquire power in clear, simple, direct narration and 
description, using apt and forcible language and 
holding to a clear-cut line of thought. This is no 
slight task, and when once mastered and fixed in 
habit becomes the foundation of a wider freedom and 
skill in development exercises. The works of the 
great story-tellers furnish excellent models of this 
sort of skill, and teachers may follow closely in the 
lines struck out by Scott or Hawthorne in narrating 
a story. 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 3 1 

A book Story cannot do otherwise than simply 
narrate; it cannot develop, set problems and ques- 
tions and have children to find solutions and answers. 
It must tell the facts and answer the questions. But 
in oral narration there is room not only for all the 
skill of the story-writer, but also the added force of 
voice, personality, lively manner, gesture, action, and 
close adaptation to the immediate needs of children 
and subject. This is enough to command the undi- 
vided effort of the young teacher at first, without 
entering the stormy waters and shifting currents of 
pure development work. 

Yet the spirited teacher will not go far in narrating 
a story without a tendency to ask questions to inten- 
sify the children's thought, or to quicken the discus- 
sion of interesting points. Even if the teachers or 
parents are but reading a good story from a book, 
it is most natural, at times, to ask questions about 
the meaning of certain new words, or geographical 
locations, or probabiHties in the working out of the 
story. These are the simple beginnings of develop- 
ment work, and produce greater thoughtfulness, 
keener perceptions of the facts, and a better absorp- 
tion of the story into a child's previous knowledge. 

A sharp limitation of development work is also 
found in the circumstance that a large share of the 
facts in a story cannot by any sort of ingenuity be 
developed. They form the necessary basis for later 
development questions. Even many of the facts 



32 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

which might be developed by a skilful teacher are 
better told directly, because of the difficulty and- 
time-devouring nature of the process. There may 
be a few central problems in every story, which, after 
the necessary facts and conditions have been plainly 
told, can be thoroughly sifted out by questions, an- 
swers, and discussions. But to work out all the little 
details of a story by question and surmise, to get the 
crude, unbaked opinions of all the members of a class 
upon every episode and fact in a story, is a pitiful 
caricature of good instruction. 

The purpose of good development work is to get 
children to go deeper into the meaning of a story, to 
realize its situations more keenly, and to acquire 
habits of thoughtfulness, self-reliant judgment, and 
inventiveness in solving difficulties. These results, 
and they are among the chiefest set for the educator, 
cannot be accomplished by mere narration and de- 
scription. Their superior excellence and worth are 
the prize of that superior skill which first-class devel- 
opment work demands. 

With these preliminary remarks, criticisms, and 
limitations in mind, we may inquire what are the es- 
sentials of good development work in oral lessons. 

(i) Determine what parts of a story are capable of 
development ; what facts must be clearly present to 
the mind before questions can be put and inferences 
derived. In a problem in arithmetic we first state 
the known facts, the conditions upon which a solu- 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 33 

tion can be based, and then put a question whose 
answer is to be gained by a proper conjunction and 
inference from these facts. The same thing is true 
in reasoning upon the facts in a story. 

(2) In placing a topic before children it is always 
advisable to touch up the knowledge already pos- 

V sessed by the children, or any parts of their previous 
experience which have strong interpretative ideas for 
the new lesson. At this point apt questions which 
probe quickly into their previous knoivledge and 
experience are at a premium. The teacher needs 
to have considered beforehand in what particulars 
the children's home surroundings and peculiar cir- 
cumstances may furnish the desired knowledge. The 
form of the questions may also receive close atten- 
tion. For these words must provoke definite thought. 
They should have hooks on them which quickly drag 
experience into light. 

(3) In order to give direction to the children's 
thoughts on the story's line of progress, interesting 
aims should be set up. These aims, without antici- 
pating precise results, must guide the children 
towards the desired ends and turning-points in the 
story. The mind should be kept in suspense as to 
the outcome, and the thoughts should centre and 
play about these clearly projected aims. Such aims, 
floating constantly in the van, are the objective 
points, towards which the energy of thought is 
directed. Every good story-teller keeps such aims 



34 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

expressly or tacitly in view. Novelists and drama- 
tists hinge the interest of readers or spectators 
upon this curiosity which is kept acutely sensitive 
about results. Such an aim should be simple and 
concrete, not vague or abstract, or general. It may 
be put in the form of a question or statement or 
suggestion. It will be a good share of the teacher's 
work in the preparation of the lesson to pick out and 
word these aims which centre upon the leading 
topics of the lesson. For it is not enough to have 
an aim at the beginning of a story, every chapter 
or separate part of the story should have its aim. 
For aims are what stimulate effort and keep up an 
attentive interest. 

(4) Self-activity and thoughtfulncss in working 
out problems find their best opportunity in develop- 
ment work. The book, in narrating a itory, cannot 
set problems, or, if it docs, it forthwith assumes the 
task of solving them. But in the oral development 
of a story the essential facts and conditions may be 
clearly presented and the solution of the difficulties, 
as in arithmetic, left largely to the ingenuity and 
reasoning power of the children. In the story of 
Hiawatha's boat-building the problem may be set to 
the children as to what materials he will use in the 
construction of the canoe, how the parts were put 
together, and how he might decorate it. Not that 
the children will give the whole solution, but they 
can contribute much to it. In " Robinson Crusoe " 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 35 

many such problems arise. How shall he conceal 
his cave and house from possible enemies ? Where 
can he store his powder to keep it from the lightning 
and from dampness ? In fact, nearly every step in 
Crusoe's interesting career is such a problem or diffi- 
culty to battle with. In Kingsley's " Greek Heroes " 
and other renderings of the Greek myths, the heroes 
are young men who have shrewdness, courage, and 
strength to overcome difficulties. To put these diffi- 
culties before children in such a way that they by 
their own thinking may anticipate, in part at least, 
the proper solutions, is one of the chief merits of 
development work. The story of Ulysses is a series 
of shrewd contrivances to master difficulties or to 
avoid misfortunes, so that his name has become a 
synonym for shrewdness. The story itself, therefore, 
furnishes prime opportunities to develop resourceful- 
ness. How shall he escape from the enraged Poly- 
phemos in the cave ? His invention of the wooden 
horse before Troy ; his escape from the sirens ; his 
battle with the suitors and others. The story of 
Aladdin has such interesting inventions, and even 
the fairy tales and fables have many turns of shrewd- 
ness and device where the children's wits may 
be stimulated. The turning-points and centres of 
interest in all such stories are the true wrestling- 
grounds of thought. To put them point-blank before 
children in continuous narrative, without question 
or discussion, is not the way to produce thoughtful- 



36 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

ness and inventive power. Merely reading or telling 
stories to children without comment is entertaining, 
but not educative in the better sense. Children will 
have plenty of chances at home and in the school 
library to read and hear stories, but it is the business 
of the school to teach them how to think as they 
read, to produce a habit of foreseeing, reviewing, 
comparing, and judging. The serious defect of 
much of young people's reading, from ten years on, 
is its superficial, transitory character. It lacks depth, 
strength, and permanency. It is not many stories 
that can be orally treated in this thorough-going way, 
but enough to give the right idea, and to cultivate 
habit and taste for more thoughtful study. 

For skilled teachers, therefore, development lessons, 
within certain limits, constitute a most important 
phase of oral instruction. It has been sometimes 
assumed that a child acquires greater self-reliance 
and a stronger exercise in self-activity by learning 
his lesson by himself from a book. This is probably 
true in much of the arithmetic, where he works out 
the solution of problems unaided ; but in history and 
literature the book work is chiefly memory work, and 
oftentimes becomes of such parrot-like character 
as to be almost destitute of higher educative quali- 
ties. It is advisable, therefore, to strengthen the 
educative value of story work by giving it, through 
oral instruction, this problem-solving character, this 
thought-stimulating, self-reliant attitude of mind. 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 3/ 

7. When the teacher has shown his best skill in 
presenting and discussing a section of a story, it then 
devolves upon the children to show their knowledge 
and grasp of the subject by reproducing it. The 
task of getting this well done requires, perhaps, as 
much skill and force of character as all previous 
work of oral instruction. Obstacles are met with at 
once. It is dull work to go back over the same thing 
again, and the children soon get tired of it. They 
want something new and more exciting, and press 
for the rest of the story. Many children are at first 
deficient in power of attention and in language, so 
that their efforts at reproduction are clumsy and poor. 
The interest is weak, the attention of the children 
scattering, and the class is apt to go to pieces under 
the strain of such dull work. This is an emergency 
where a teacher needs both skill and force of char- 
acter. (What a comfort it is to a writer to have such 
a platitude as this to fall back upon, when he gets 
a teacher into a place where nothing but his own 
devices can save him.) 

There are, however, some hopeful considerations 
which may encourage a teacher whose feet are not 
already too deep in the bog of discouragement. 

Children enjoy the retelling of good stories with 
which they are familiar. They will do it at home, 
even if they are not very proficient at it-in school. 
In every class there are some talkative children who 
are always willing to make an effort. Again, it is 



38 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

not always difficult to interest boys and girls in doing 
a thing that requires skill and power, such as memory, 
attentiveness, and mastery of correct language. The 
force of the teacher's influence and authority is worth 
something in setting up high standards of proficiency. 
Indeed, children respect a teacher who makes rigor- 
ous demands upon them. The retelHng of stories 
is, after all, no harder nor duller than the reciting of 
a lesson learned out of a book. 

On the other hand, the whole effectiveness of oral 
work depends upon the success of these oral repro- 
ductions. If children know that the teacher is in 
earnest they will be more attentive, so as to be 
able to fulfil the requirement. Such a reproduction 
reveals at once a child's correct or incorrect grasp 
of the subject, and in either case the teacher knows 
what to do next. Errors and misconceptions can be 
corrected and such explanations or additional facts 
given as will clarify the subject. 

In such reproductions it is praiseworthy to help 
the children as little as possible, to throw them back 
upon their own power as much as possible. If the 
teacher constantly relieves them with suggestive ques- 
tions, they lean more and more upon her direction 
and lose all self-reliant power of continuous narra- 
tive. No, let the teacher keep a prudent silence, let 
her seal her lips, if necessary, in order to teach boys 
and girls to stand on their own power of thought. 

Under this sort of discipline, kindly but rigorous, 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 39 

children will gradually acquire confidence in manner, 
variety and choice of language, in short, the ability to 
grasp clearly, hold firmly, and express accurately the 
ideas which are presented to them. 

The whole purpose of this sort of instruction is not 
so much to see how skilfully a teacher can present a 
lesson (though that is a fine art) as to determine how 
well a boy or girl can master or express knowledge, 
can learn to think and speak for himself. 

8. Some teachers despair of treating stories orally 
in large classes of primary children. The task of 
holding together such wriggling varieties of mental 
force and mental inertia is great. Some children are 
quick and excitable, others are unresponsive and dull. 
Some are timid and sensitive, others bold and demon- 
strative. Some are talkative and irrepressible, others 
silent or listless. 

It is interesting to consider the function and value 
of a good child's story to fit in to such varying needs 
and personalities. If the purpose of the primary 
school is simply to keep children busy at some kind 
of orderly work, there are other tamer employments 
than stories. But if the idea is to put children's 
minds and bodies into healthy, vigorous action, it 
would be difficult to find a more suitable instrument 
than a fitting story. 

But a good primary teacher knows better than to 
establish brusque and fixed standards of uniform 
success for all children. It will take much time and 



40 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

patience to get anything like good oral responses 
from some children. Like budding flowers some 
unfold their leaves and petals much quicker at the 
touch of sunshine than others. But the sun does not 
stop shining because all do not come out at once. 
The crudest efforts of little children must be received 
with kindness and encouragement. The power of 
reproducing thought and language is very slowly 
acquired by many children. They are timidly self- 
conscious, distrustful of their own powers, and have 
not learned to throw themselves with confidence upon 
the good-will of their teachers. It may take months 
with some children to overcome these obstacles, and 
to bring them to a confident use of their powers, but 
it is the highest delight of a teacher to reach this 
result. 

Some children, on the other hand, are so talkative 
and impulsive that they will monopohze the time of 
the class to no good purpose. Their enthusiasm 
requires tempering and their soberer thought strength- 
ening. 

Another difficulty lies in the necessary effort to get 
correct English, to gradually mould the language of 
children into correct forms. The perverse habits of 
children, the influence of home and playground, the 
inveterate preference for slang and crude, crass 
expressions, and their sensitive pride against unusual 
refinements of speech, make the cultivation of good 
English an uphill task. But roads must be laid out 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 4 1 

through this wilderness of hills and valleys, stumps 
and brush. And these roads must be gradually 
worked down into smooth highways of travel. It is 
pioneer toil, requiring the steady use of axe and 
mattock and spade. 

There is no kind of school training where good Eng- 
lish can be cultivated to better advantage, where the 
power of correct, independent, well-articulated speech 
can be so well strengthened as in oral story. It is 
in the close contact of this work that the teacher is 
dealing directly with the original stock of experiences, 
ideas, and words of every child, and with these as 
instruments of acquisition, helping him to get a 
spirited introduction to the world of ideas in books 
and literature. 

It is here that we can get a glimpse of that vast 
work which the elementary schools of the country 
are doing in the way of Americanizing the children 
of various nationaHties and in giving them not only 
a common language, but a common body of ideas 
rooted in the earliest experiences of childhood and 
already laying hold of many of the richest treasures 
of American history and of the world's literature. 

9. As children advance from the first year into the 
second and third years the character of the oral story- 
telling gradually changes. Children should acquire 
more power of attention, greater command of lan- 
guage and ability to grasp and hold at one telling 
a larger section of a story. The stories themselves 



42 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

become more complex, the questions and problems 
set by the teacher more difficult. The necessity for 
sharp, logical outlines of leading topics increases as 
one advances in the grades. Older children can 
be held more rigidly to common standards of excel- 
lence in thought and language. In this, however, 
the teacher should always remember that children 
differ greatly in their natural powers of expression, 
and that a forcing process will not be so successful 
as a stimulating and encouraging attitude in the 
teacher. 

lo. The good oral treatment of most stories leads 
the children to much activity in material construc- 
tions. Where the minds of children are brought to 
a healthy activity their bodies and physical energies 
are pretty sure to be called into play to work out the 
suggested lines of thought. "Robinson Crusoe" in- 
variably leads the children to a multitude of building 
and making enterprises, such as moulding vessels in 
clay, constructing the barricade around his tent and 
cave, the making of chairs and tables, etc. 

We have already noticed the readiness of children 
to make blackboard or other drawings of interesting 
objects in a story, or to cut them out with scissors 
from paper. This effort to experience the realities 
of life more directly by making objects of common 
utility and necessity is a characteristic and powerful 
tendency of childhood. It is commonly seen in 
children about the house, when, for example, they 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 43 

must have wagons, wheelbarrows, tools, or a set of 
garden implements with which to imitate the employ- 
ments of their elders. Parkman and others often 
speak of the constant practice of little Indian boys 
with bow and arrows. 

Our purpose here is not to discuss this matter at 
length, but simply to notice its prominent place in 
connection with the oral lesson in story. The intense 
interest awakened in stories leads quickly to these 
efforts at construction. What shall the teacher do 
with this powerful tendency of children to carry over 
these ideas into the field of practical constructive 
labor.? To the thinker this tendency is perhaps 
the surest proof of the value of the story. It does 
not stop with words nor ideas. It pushes far into the 
region of voluntary, physical, and mental labor and 
appHcation of knowledge. 

The teacher who will make good use of this enter- 
prising constructive desire of children must know defi- 
nitely about tools, boards, shops, various industries, 
and technical trades, the special materials, inventions, 
and devices of artisans in the common occupations, 
such as farming, gardening, blacksmithing, the car- 
penter shop, the baker, the quarry, the brick kiln, etc. 

It will not be strange if many teachers recoil, at 
first glance, from this leap into industrial life. It 
suggests that the schoolhouse must become a big 
machine shop, agricultural station, etc. The trouble 
is, of course, that teachers do not feel themselves 



44 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

qualified in these things. They know almost as 
little as the children about such matters, and have 
much less inclination to know more. 

But our modern education is taking a decided turn 
in this direction, and with good reason. The close 
acquaintance of our teachers with the common occu- 
pations of life, with their materials, tools, machines, 
constructions, and skill would supply them with a rich 
collection of practical, concrete, illustrative knowl- 
edge of the greatest use in instructing children. It 
is impossible to mention anything which would be 
of more service to them in the details of instruction. 
The advantages to the children of such teaching, re- 
enforced by this concrete detail of common life, are 
so numerous and important as to deserve a special 
effort. The benefit to teachers would quickly more 
than recompense them for the labor involved. By 
occasional visits of observation in shops, fields, stores, 
and factories, by assisting children in their construc- 
tive efforts, the teacher will acquire knowledge, 
strength, and confidence for such work. The unfa- 
miliarity of teachers with these everyday industrial 
matters, and their feeling of helplessness as regards 
things not in the usual routine of school, are the real 
hindrances to be overcome. 

There are other subjects in the school course, like 
home geography and the early lessons in nature 
study, which deal more directly than stories with 
these practical forms of industrial life and construe- 



THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 45 

tive activity. They will also demand and cultivate an 
increasing knowledge of this practical phase of life 
and education. The lessons in oral story-telling 
stand thus closely linked with progressive experi- 
mental knowledge in other studies. 

A brief retrospect and summary of the require- 
ments necessary as a basis of good oral treatment of 
stories will impress us with the skill and resourceful- 
ness needed by the teacher. 

1. First-hand experience with the realities of life. 

2. Intimate knowledge and sympathy with child 
life. 

3. The many-sided mastery of the story for teach- 
ing purposes. 

4. Skill in the use of simple, apt, and forcible 
language. 

5. Power of narrative and description, together 
with various forms of graphic illustration, dramatic 
action, etc. 

6. Clear and simple outline of leading topics. 

7. Acquired power in the use of development 
methods, including question, problem, discussion, 
aims, and the training of children to self -activity and 
thoughtfulness. 

8. The successful oral reproduction of stories by 
the children. 

9. Tact in the handling of large classes, with 
children of differing temperament and capacity, and 
the encouragement of timid children. 



46 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

10. Changing character of oral work in advancing 
grades. 

11. The need of insight and ability to supervise 
constructive activities. 

These things include a wide range of clear knowl- 
edge and confident skill and resource. Teachers 
need first of all to cultivate resourcefulness in the use 
of their own knowledge and experience, and to add to 
both of these as rapidly as circumstances permit. 

The mere reading of stories to children by the 
teacher, at odd times, on Friday afternoons or on 
special occasions, is also of much value as a means of 
interesting children in a wide range of good books. 
It is a source of entertainment and culture, which, 
when judiciously and skilfully employed, adds much 
to the educative power of the school. 



CHAPTER III 

First Grade Stories 

fairy tales 

Young children, as we all know, are delighted with 
stories, and in the first grade they are still in this 
story-loving period. A good story is the best medium 
through which to convey ideas and also to approach 
the difficulties of learning to read. Such a story, 
Wilmann says, is a pedagogical treasure. By many 
thinkers and primary teachers the fairy stories have 
been adopted as best suited to the wants of the little 
folk just emerging from the home. A series of fairy 
tales was selected by Ziller, one of the leading Her- 
bartians, as a centre for the school work of the first 
year. These stories have long held a large place in 
the home culture of children, especially of the more 
cultivated class. Now it is claimed that what is good 
for the few whose parents may be cultured and sym- 
pathetic, may be good enough for the children of the 
common people and of the poor. Moreover, stories 
that have made the fireside more joyous and blessed 
may perchance bring vivacity and happiness into 
schoolrooms. The home and the school are coming 
closer together. It is even said that well-trained, 

47 



48 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

sympathetic primary teachers may better tell and 
impress these stories than overworked mothers and 
busy fathers. If these literary treasures are left for 
the homes to discover and use, the majority of chil- 
dren will know little or nothing of them. Many 
schools in this country have been using them in the 
first grade in recent years with a pleasing effect. 

But what virtue lies concealed in these fairy myths 
for the children of our practical and sensible age.? 
Why should we draw from fountains whose sources 
are back in the prehistoric and even barbarous past .? 
To many people it appears as a curious anachronism 
to nourish little children in the first decade of this 
new century upon food that was prepared in the 
tents of wandering tribes in early European history. 
What are the merits of these stories for children just 
entering upon scholastic pursuits ? They are known 
to be generally attractive to children of this age, but 
many sober-minded people distrust them. Are they 
really meat and drink for the little ones ? And not 
only so, but the choicest meat and drink, the best 
food upon which to nourish their unfolding minds ? 

Fairy tales are charged with misleading children 
by falsifying the truth of things. And, indeed, they 
pay little heed to certain natural laws that practical 
people of good sense always respect. A child, how- 
ever, is not so humdrum practical as these serious 
truth-lovers. A little girl talks to her doll as if it 
had real ears. She and her little brother make tea- 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 49 

cups and saucers out of acorns with no apparent 
compunctions of conscience. They follow Cinderella 
to the ball in a pumpkin chariot, transformed by 
magic wand, with even greater interest than we read 
of a presidential ball. A child may turn the com- 
mon laws of physical nature inside out and not be a 
whit the worse for it. Its imagination can people 
a pea-pod with little heroes aching for a chance in 
the big world, or it can put tender personality into 
the trunk and branches of the little pine tree in the 
forest. There are no space limits that a child's fancy 
will not spring over in a twinkling. It can ride from 
star to star on a broomstick, or glide over peaceful 
waters in a fairy boat drawn by graceful swans. 
Without suggestion from mother or teacher, children 
put life and personality into their playthings. Their 
spontaneous delights are in this playful exercise of 
the fancy, in masquerading under the guise of a 
soldier, bear, horse, or bird. The fairy tale is the 
poetry of children's inner impulse and feeling ; their 
sparkling eyes and absorbed interest show how fitting 
is the contact between these childlike creations of the 
poet and their own budding thoughts. 

In discussing the qualities requisite in a fairy story 
to make it a pedagogical treasure, Wilmann says : ^ 
"When it is laid down as a first and indispensable 
requirement that a story be genuinely childlike, the 
demand sounds less rigorous than it really is. It is 

* Wilmann, Paedagogische Vortrage. 



50 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

easier to feel than to describe the qualities which lend 
to a story the true childlike spirit. It is not sim- 
plicity alone. A simple story that can be understood 
by a child is not on that account childlike. The 
simplicity must be the ingenuousness of the child. 
Close to this lies the abyss of silliness into which 
so many children's stories tumble. A simple story 
may be manufactured, but the quality of true sim- 
plicity will not be breathed into it unless one can draw 
from the deeper springs of poetic invention. It is 
not enough that the externals of the story, such 
as situation and action, have this character, but the 
sensibilities and motives^ of the actors must be in- 
genuous and childlike ; they should reflect the child's 
own feeling, wish, and effort. *But it is not neces- 
sary on this account that the persons of the story be 
children. Indeed the king, prince, and princess, if 
they only speak and act like children, are much 
nearer the child's comprehension than any of the 
children paraded in a manufactured story, designed 
for the * industrious youth.* For just as real poetry 
so the real child's story lies beyond reality in the 
field of fancy. With all its plainness of thought and 
action, the genuine child's story knows how to take 
hold of the child's fancy and set its wings in motion. 
And what a meaning has fancy for the soul of the 
child as compared with that of the adult. For us 
the activity of fancy only sketches arabesques, as 
it were, around the sharply defined pictures of reality. 



FIRST GRADE STORIES $1 

The child thinks and lives in such arabesques, and 
it is only gradually that increasing experience writes 
among these arabesques the firmer outlines of things. 
The child's thoughts float about playfully and un- 
steadily, but the fairy tale is even lighter winged 
than they. It overtakes these fleeting summer birds 
and wafts them together without brushing the dust 
from their wings. 

'' But fostering the activity of fancy in children is 
a means, not an end. It is necessary to enter the 
field of fancy because the way to the child's heart 
leads through the fancy. The effect upon the heart 
of the child is the second mark and proof of the genu- 
ine child's story. We are not advocates of the so- 
called moral stories which are so short-winded as to 
stop frequently and rest upon some moral common- 
place. Platitudes and moral maxims are not de- 
signed to develop a moral taste in the minds of 
young children, for they appeal to the understand- 
ing and will of the pupil and presuppose what must 
be first built up and established. True moral train- 
ing is rather calculated to awaken in the child judg- 
ments of right and wrong, of good and evil (on 
simple illustrative examples). Not the impression 
left by a moralizing discourse is the germ of a love 
of the good and right, but rather the child's judg- 
ment springing from its own conviction. * That was 
good.' * What a mean thing ! ' 

" Those narratives have a moral force which intro- 



52 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

duce persons and acts that are simple and trans- 
parent enough to let the moral light shine through, 
that possess sufficient life to lend warmth and vigor 
to moral judgments. No attempt to cover up or 
pass over what is bad, nor to paint it in extravagant 
colors. For the bad develops the judgment no less 
than the good. It remains only to have a care that 
a child's interest inclines toward the good, the just, 
and the right." 

Wilmann summarizes the essentials of a good story, 
and then discusses the fairy tales as follows : — 

" There are then live requirements to be made of 
a real child's story : Let it be truly childlike, that is, 
both simple and full of fancy; let it form morals 
in the sense that it introduces persons and matters 
which, while simple and lively, call out a moral judg- 
ment of approval or disapproval ; let it be instructive 
and lead to thoughtful discussions of society and 
nature ; let it be of permanent value, inviting per- 
petually to a reperusal ; let it be a connected whole, 
so as to work a deeper influence and become the 
source of a many-sided interest. 

** The child's story which, on the basis of the afore- 
named principles, can be made the starting-point for 
all others, is Grimm's fairy tale of folk lore. We are 
now called upon to show that the folk-lore fairy tale 
answers to the foregoing requirements, and in this 
we shall see many a ray of light cast back upon 
these requirements themselves. 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 53 

" Is the German fairy tale childlike ? full of sim- 
plicity as well as of fancy ? A deeply poetic saying 
of Jacob Grimm may teach us the answer. ' There 
runs through these poetic fairy tales the same deep 
vein of purity by reason of which children seem to 
us so wonderful and blessed. They have, as it were, 
the same pale-blue, clear, and lustrous eyes which 
can grow no more although the other members are 
still delicate and weak and unserviceable to the uses 
of earth.' Klaiber quotes this passage in his * Das 
Marchen und die Kindliche Phantasie,' and says 
with truth and beauty, * Yes ; when we look into the 
trusting eyes of a child, in which none of the world's 
deceit is to be read as yet, when we see how these 
eyes brighten and gleam at a beautiful fairy tale, as 
if they were looking out into a great, wide, beautiful 
wonder-world, then we feel something of the deep 
connection of the fairy story with the childish soul' 
We will bring forward one more passage from a little 
treatise, showing depth and warmth of feeling, which 
stealthily takes away from the doubters their scruples 
about the justification of the fairy tale. * It is strange 
how well the fairy tale and the child's soul mutually 
understand each other. It is as if they had been 
together from the very beginning and had grown up 
together. As a rule the child only deals with that 
part of real life which concerns itself and children of 
its age. Whatever lies beyond this is distant, strange, 
unintelligible. Under the leading of the fairy tale, 



54 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

however, it permits itself to be borne over hill and 
valley, over land and sea, through sun and moon 
and stars, even to the end of the world, and every- 
thing is so near, so familiar, so close to its reach, as 
if they had been everywhere before, just as if obscure 
pictures within had all at once become wonderfully 
distinct. And the fairies all, and the king's sons, 
and the other distinguished personages, whom it 
learns to know through the fairy tale, — they are as 
natural and intelligible as if the child had moved its 
life long in the highest circles, and had had princes 
and princesses for its daily playmates. In a word, 
the world of the fairy tale is the child's world, for 
it is the world of fancy.* 

" For this reason children live and move in fairy- 
land, whether the story be told by the mother or by 
the teacher in the primary school. What attention 
as the story proceeds ! What anxiousness when any 
danger threatens the hero, be he king's son or a 
wheat-straw ! What grief, even to tears, when a wrong 
is practised upon some innocent creature ! And far 
from it that the joy in the fairy tale decrease when 
it is told or discussed over again. Then comes the 
pleasure of representation — bringing the story upon 
the stage. Though a child has but to represent a 
flower in the meadow, the little face is transfigured 
with the highest joy. 

*' But the childish joy of fairytales passes away; 
not so the inner experiences which it has brought 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 55 

with it. I am not affirming too much when I say 
that he who, as a child, has never listened with joy 
to the murmuring and rustling of the fresh fountain 
of fairyland, will have no ear and no understanding 
for many a deep stream of German poetry. It is, 
after all, the modest fountain of fairy song which, 
flowing and uniting with the now noisy, now soft and 
gently flowing, current of folk song, and with the 
deep and earnest stream of tradition, which has 
poured such a refreshing current over German poetry, 
out of which our most excellent Uhland has drawn 
so many a heart-strengthening draught. 

" The spirit of the people finds expression in fairy 
tale as in tradition and song, and if we were only 
working to lift and strengthen the national impulse, 
a moral-educative instruction would have to turn 
again and again to these creations of the people. 
What was asserted as a general truth in regard to 
classical products, that they are a bond between large 
and small, old and young, is true of national stories 
and songs more than of anything else. They are at 
once a bond between the different classes, a national 
treasure, which belongs alike to rich and poor, high 
and low. The common school then has the least right 
of all to put the fairy tale aside, now that few women 
versed in fairy lore, such as those to whom Grimm 
listened, are left. 

"But does the fairy tale come of noble blood.? 
Does it possess what we called in the case of classics 



56 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

an old title of nobility ? If we keep to this figure of 
speech, we shall find that the fairy tale is not only 
noble, but a very royal child among stories. It has 
ruled from olden times, far and wide, over many a 
land. Hundreds of years gone, Grimm's fairy stories 
lived in the people's heart, and not in Germany alone. 
If our little ones listen intently to Aschenputtel, 
French children delighted in Cindrillon, the Italian 
in Cenerentola, the Polish in Kopcinszic. The fact 
that mediaeval story-books contain Grimm's tales is 
not remarkable, when we reflect that traits and char- 
acteristics of the fairy tale reach back beyond the 
Christian period ; that Frau Holle is Hulda, or Frigg, 
the heathen goddess ; that * Wishing-cap,' * Little 
Lame-leg,* and * Table Cover Thyself,' etc., are made 
up out of the attributes of German gods. Finally, 
such things as 'The Sleeping Beauty,' which is the 
earth in winter sleep, that the prince of summer 
wakes with kisses in springtime, point back to the 
period of primitive Indo-German myth. 

** But in addition to the requirement of classical 
nobility, has the fairy story also the moral tone which 
we required of the genuine child's story ? Does the 
fairy story make for morals ? To be sure it intro- 
duces to an ideal realm of simple moral relations. 
The good and bad are sharply separated. The wrong 
holds for a time its supremacy, but the final victory 
is with the good. And with what vigor the judgment 
of good and evil, of right and wrong, is produced. 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 57 

We meet touching pictures, especially of good-will, 
of faithfulness, characteristic and full of life. Think 
only of the typical interchange of words between 
Lenchen and Fundevogel. Said Lenchen, * Leave 
me not and I will never leave thee.* Said Funde- 
vogel, * Now and nevermore.' We are reminded of 
the Bible words of the faithful Ruth, ' Whither thou 
goest I will go ; where thou lodgest I will lodge ; 
where thou diest I will die and there will I be 
buried.* 

** Important for the life of children is the rigor with 
which the fairy tale punishes disobedience and false- 
hood. Think of the suggestive legendary story of 
the child which was visited again and again with mis- 
fortune because of its obstinacy, till its final confession 
of guilt brings full pardon. It is everywhere a Chris- 
tian thread which runs through so many fairy stories. 
It is love for the rejected, oppressed, and abandoned. 
Whatever is loaded with burdens and troubles receives 
the palm, and the first becomes the last. 

" The fairy story fulfils the first three require- 
ments for a true child's story. It is childlike, of 
lasting value, and fosters moral ideas. As to unity 
it will suf^ce for children of six years (for this is, in 
our opinion, the age at which it exerts its moral 
force) that the stories be told in the same spirit, 
although they do not form one connected narrative. 
If a good selection of fairy tales according to their 
inner connection is made, so that frequent references 



58 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

and connections can be found, the requirement of 
unity will be satisfied. 

"The fairy tale seems to satisfy least of all the 
demand that the true child's story must be instruc- 
tive, and serve as a starting-point for interesting 
practical discussion. The fairy story seems too airy 
and dreamy for this, and it might appear pedantry 
to load it with instruction. But one will not be 
guilty of this mistake if one simply follows up the 
ideas which the story suggests. When the story of 
a chicken, a fox, or a swan is told it is fully in har- 
mony with the childish thought to inquire into the 
habits of these animals. When the king is mentioned 
it is natural to say that we have a king, to ask where 
he lives, etc. Just because the fairy tale sinks deep 
and holds a firm and undivided attention, it is pos- 
sible to direct the suggested thoughts hither or 
thither without losing the pleasure they create. 
If one keeps this aim in mind, instructive material 
is abundant. The fairy tale introduces various em- 
ployments and callings, from the king to the farmer, 
tailor, and shoemaker. Many passages in life, such 
as betrothal, marriage, and burial, are presented. 
Labors in the house, yard, and field, and numerous 
animals, plants, and inanimate things are touched 
upon. For the observation of animals and for the 
relation between them and children, it is fortunate 
that the fairy tale presents them as talking and feel- 
ing. Thereby the interest in real animals is in- 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 59 

creased and heartlessness banished. How could a 
child put to the torture an animal which is an old 
friend in fairy story ? 

" I need only suggest in this place how the fairy 
story furnishes material for exercises in oral language, 
for the division of words into syllables and letters, 
and how the beginnings of writing, drawing, number, 
and manual exercises may be drawn from the same 
source. 

"From the suggestions just made the following 
conclusions at least may be reasonably drawn. A 
sufficient counterpoise to the fantastical nature of 
the fairy tale can be given in a manner simple and 
childlike, if the objects and relations involved in the 
narratives are brought clearly before the senses and 
discussed so that instruction about common objects 
and home surroundings is begun." 

In speaking of Shakespeare's early training in 
literature, Charles Kingsley says : — 

" I said there was a literary art before Shake- 
speare — an art more simple, more childlike, more 
girlish, as it were, and therefore all the more adapted 
for young minds, but also an art most vigorous and 
pure in point of style : thoroughly fitted to give its 
readers the first elements of taste, which must lie at 
the root of even the most complex aesthetics. 

" The old fairy superstition, the old legends and 
ballads, the old chronicles of feudal war and chiv- 
alry, the earlier moralities and mysteries and tragi- 



60 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

comic attempts — these were the roots of his poetic 
tree — they must be the roots of any literary educa- 
tion which can teach us to appreciate him. These 
fed Shakespeare's youth ; why should they not feed 
our children's ? Why indeed ? That inborn delight 
of the young in all that is marvellous and fantastic — 
has that a merely evil root ? No surely I It is a 
most pure part of their spiritual nature; a part of 
* the heaven which lies about us in our infancy ' ; 
angel-wings with which the free child leaps the 
prison-walls of sense and custom, and the drudgery 
of earthly life." 

Felix Adler says : ^ " But how shall we handle 
these Mdrchen and what method shall we employ 
in putting them to account for our special purpose.^ 
I have a few thoughts on this subject, which I shall 
venture to submit in the form of counsels. 

" My first counsel is : Tell the story ; do not give it 
to the child to read. There is an obvious practical 
reason for this. Children are able to benefit by 
hearing fairy tales before they can read. But that 
is not the only reason. It is the childhood of the 
race, as we have seen, that speaks in the fairy story 
of the child of to-day. It is the voice of an ancient 
far-off past that echoes from the lips of the story- 
teller. The words * once upon a time ' open up a 
vague retrospect into the past, and the child gets 
its first indistinct notions of history in this way. The 

1 Moral Instruction of Children. D. Appleton & Co. 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 6 1 

Stories embody the tradition of the childhood of man- 
kind. They have on this account an authority all 
their own, not, indeed, that of literal truth, but one 
derived from their being types of certain feelings 
and longings which belong to childhood as such. 
The child, as it listens to the Mdrchen, looks up with 
wide-opened eyes to the face of the person who tells 
the story, and thrills responsive as the touch of the 
earlier life of the race thus falls upon its own. Such an 
effect, of course, cannot be produced by cold type. 
Tradition is a living thing and should use the living 
voice for its vehicle. 

" My second counsel is also of a practical nature, 
and I make bold to say quite essential to the suc- 
cessful use of the stories. Do not take the moral 
plum out of the fairy-tale pudding, but let the child 
enjoy it as a whole. Do not make the story taper 
toward a single point, the moral point. You will 
squeeze all the juice out of it if you try. Do not 
subordinate the purely fanciful and naturalistic ele- 
ments of the story, such as the love of mystery, the 
passion for roving, the sense of fellowship with the 
animal world, in order to fix attention solely on 
the moral element. On the contrary, you will gain 
the best moral effect by proceeding in exactly the 
opposite way. Treat the moral element as an in- 
cident, emphasize it indeed, but incidentally. Pluck 
it as a wayside flower. How often does it happen 
that, having set out on a journey with a distinct 



62 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

object in mind, something occurs on the way which 
we had not foreseen, but which in the end leaves the 
deepest impression on the mind. . . . 

"The value of the fairy tales is that they stimu- 
late the imagination ; that they reflect the unbroken 
communion of human life with the life universal, as 
in beasts, fishes, trees, flowers, and stars ; and that 
incidentally, but all the more powerfully on that ac- 
count, they quicken the moral sentiments. 

"Let us avail ourselves freely of the treasures 
which are thus placed at our disposal. Let us wel- 
come das Mdrchen into our primary course of moral 
training, that with its gentle bands, woven of * morn- 
ing mist and morning glory,' it may help to lead our 
children into bright realms of the ideal." 

A selection of fairy stories suited to our first grade 
will differ from a similar selection for foreign schools. 
There has been a disposition among American 
teachers for several years to appropriate the best 
of these stories for use in the primary schools. In 
different parts of the country skilful primary teachers 
have been experimenting successfully with these 
materials. There are many schools in which both 
teachers and pupils have taken great delight in them. 
The effort has been made more particularly with first 
grade children, the aim of teachers being to lead cap- 
tive the spontaneous interest of children from their first 
entrance upon school tasks. Some of the stories used 
at the first may seem light and farcical, but experi- 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 63 

ments with children are a better test than the precon- 
ceived notions of adults who may have forgotten their 
early childhood. The story of the " Four Musicians," 
for example, is a favorite with the children. 

At the risk of repetition, and to emphasize some 
points of special importance, we will review briefly 
the method of oral treatment and the use of the 
stories in early primary reading. 

The children have no knowledge of reading or per- 
haps of letters. The story is told with spirit by the 
teacher, no book being used in the class. Question 
and interchange of thought between pupil and teacher 
will become more frequent and suggestive as the 
teacher becomes more skilled and sympathetic in her 
treatment of the story. In the early months of school 
life the aim is to gain the attention and cooperation 
of children by furnishing abundant food for thought. 
Children are required or at least encouraged to narrate 
the story or a part of it in the class. They tell it at 
school and probably at home, till they become more 
and more absorbed in it. Even the backward or 
timid child gradually acquires courage and enjoys 
narrating the adventures of the peas in the pod or 
those of the animals in the "Four Musicians." 

The teacher should acquire a vivid and picturesque 
style of narrating, persistently weaving into the story, 
by query and suggestion, the previous home experi- 
ences of the children. They are only too ready to 
bring out these treasures at the call of the teacher. 



64 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Often it is necessary to check their enthusiasm. 
There is a need not simply for narrative power, but 
for quick insight and judgment, so as to bring their 
thoughts into close relation to the incidents. No- 
where in all the schools is there such a call for close 
and motherly sympathy. The gentle compulsion of 
kindness is required to inspire the timid ones with 
confidence. For some of them are slow to open their 
delicate thought and sensibility, even to the sunny 
atmosphere of a pleasant school. 

A certain amount of drill in reproduction is neces- 
sary, but fortunately the stories have something that 
bears repetition with a growing interest. Added to 
this is the desire for perfect mastery, and thus the 
stories become more dear with familiarity. 

Incidentally, there should be emphasis of the in- 
structive information gathered concerning animals 
and plants that are actors in the scenes. The com- 
monest things of the house, field, and garden acquire 
a new and lasting interest. Sometimes the teacher 
makes provision in advance of the story for a deeper 
interest in the plants and animals that are to appear. 
In natural science lessons she may take occasion to 
examine the pea blossom, or the animals of the barn- 
yard, or the squirrel or birds in their cages. When, 
a few days later, the story touches one of these ani- 
mals, there is a quick response from the children. 
This relation between history and natural science 
strengthens both. 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 65 

Many an opportunity should be given for the pupils 
to express a warm sympathy for gentle acts of kind- 
ness or unselfishness. The happiness that even a 
simple flower may bring to a home is a contagious 
example. Kindly treatment of the old and feeble, 
and sympathy for the innocent and helpless, spring 
into the child's own thought. The fancy, sympathy, 
and interest awakened by a good fairy tale make it 
a vehicle by which, consciously and unconsciously, 
many advantages are borne home to pupils. 

Among other things, it opens the door to the read- 
ing lesson ; that is, to the beginning efforts in master- 
ing and using the symbols of written language. The 
same story which all have learned to tell, they are 
now about to learn to read from the board. One or 
two sentences are taken directly from the lips of the 
pupils as they recall the story, and the work of mas- 
tering symbols is begun at once with zest. First is 
the clear statement of some vivid thought by a child, 
then a quick association of this thought with its writ- 
ten symbols on the board. There is no readier way 
of bringing thought and form into firm connection, 
that is, of learning to read. Keep the child's fresh 
mental judgment and the written form clearly before 
his mind till the two are wedded. Let the thought 
run back and forth between them till they are one. 

After fixing two or three sentences on the board, 
attention is directed more closely to the single words, 
and a rapid drill upon those in the sentence is fol- 

F 



66 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

lowed by a discovery and naming of them in miscel- 
laneous order. Afterward new sentences are formed 
by the teacher out of the same words, written on the 
board, and read by the children. They express dif- 
ferent, and perhaps opposite forms of thought, and 
should exercise the child's sense and judgment as 
well as his memory of words. An energetic, lively, 
and successful drill of this kind upon sentences drawn 
from stories has been so often witnessed, that its 
excellence is no longer a matter of question. These 
exercises are a form of mental activity in which chil- 
dren delight if the teacher's manner is vigorous and 
pleasant. 

When the mastery of new word-forms as wholes is 
fairly complete, the analysis may go a step farther. 
Some new word in the lesson may be taken and sepa- 
rated into its phonic elements, as the word hill^ and 
new words formed by dropping a letter and prefixing 
letters or syllables, as ill, till, tmtil, mill, rill, etc. The 
power to construct new words out of old materials 
should be cultivated all along the process of learning 
to read. 

Still other school activities of children stand in 
close relation to the fairy tales. They are encour- 
aged to draw the objects and incidents in which 
the story abounds. Though rude and uncouth, the 
drawings still often surprise us with their truth and 
suggestiveness. The sketches reveal the content of 
a child's mind as almost nothing else — his miscon- 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 6/ 

ceptions, his vague or clearly defined notions. They 
also furnish his mental and physical activities an 
employment exactly suited to his needs and wishes. 
The power to use good EngUsh and to express 
himself clearly and fittingly is cultivated from the 
very first. While this merit is purely incidental, it 
is none the less valuable. The persistence with 
which bad and uncouth words and phrases are 
employed by children in our common school, both in 
oral work and in composition, admonishes us to begin 
early to eradicate these faults. It seems often as if 
intermediate and grammar grades were more faulty 
and wretched in their use of EngHsh than primary 
grades. But there can be no doubt that early and 
persistent practice in the best forms of expression, 
especially in connection with interesting and appro- 
priate thought matter, will greatly aid correctness, 
fluency, and confidence in speech. There is also 
a convincing pedagogical reason why children in the 
first primary should be held to the best models of 
spoken language. They enter the school better fur- 
nished with oral speech than with a knowledge of 
any school study. Their home experiences have 
wrought into close association and unity, word and 
thing. So intimate and living is the relation between 
word and thought or object, that a child really does 
not distinguish between them. This is the treasure 
with which he enters school, and it should not be 
wrapped up in a napkin. It should be unrolled at 



68 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

once and put to service. Oral speech is the capital 
with which a child enters the business of education ; 
let him employ it. 

A retrospect upon the various forms of school activ- 
ity which spring, in practical work, from the use of 
a good fairy story, reveals how many-sided and 
inspiriting are its influences. Starting out with a 
rich content of thought peculiarly germane to child- 
ish interests, it calls for a full employment of the lan- 
guage resources already possessed by the children. 
In the effort to picture out, with pencil or chalk, his 
conceptions of the story, a child exercises his fanciful 
and creative wit, as well as the muscles of arms and 
eyes. A good story always finds its setting in the 
midst of nature or society, and touches up with a 
simple, homely, but poetic charm the commonest 
verities of human experience. The appeal to the 
sensibility and moral judgment of pupils is direct and 
spontaneous, because of the interests and sympathies 
that are inherent in persons, and touch directly the 
childish fancy. And, lastly, the irrepressible tradi- 
tional demand that children shall learn to read, is 
fairly and honestly met and satisfied. 

It is not claimed that fairy tales involve the sum 
total of primary instruction, but they are an illustra- 
tion of how rich will be the fruitage of our educa- 
tional effort if we consider first the highest needs and 
interests of children, and allow the formal arts to 
drop into their proper subordination. "The best is 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 69 

good enough for children," and when we select the 
best, the wide-reaching connections which are estab- 
lished between studies carry us a long step toward 
the now much-bruited correlation and concentration 
of studies. 



BOOKS OF MATERIALS FOR TEACHERS 

Classic Stories for the Little Ones. Public School Publishing 

Co., Bloomington, 111. 
Grimm's Fairy Tales (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. 
German Fairy Tales (Grimm) . Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 
Grimm's German Household Tales. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Stories from Hans Andersen. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Andersen's Fairy Tales, two volumes, Part I and Part II. Ginn 

& Co. 
Fairy Stories and Fables. American Book Co. 
Fables and Folk Stories (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Rhymes and Jingles (Dodge). Scribner's Sons. 
Fairy Stories for Children (Baldwin). American Book Co. 
Songs and Stories. University Publishing Co. 
Fairy Life. University Publishing Co. 
Six Nursery Classics (O'Shea). D. C. Heath & Co. 
Grimm's Fairy Tales. Educational Publishing Co. 
A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Welch). D. C. Heath & Co. 
Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. Houghton, Mifflin, 

&Co. 
Heart of Oak, No. I. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. 
The Eugene Field Book. Scribner's Sons. 
Moral Education of Children (Adler). D. Appleton & Co. 

Chapter VI. on Fairy Tales. 
Literature in Schools (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Chapter on Nursery Classics. 



70 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

THE FABLES 

No group of stories has a more assured place in 
the literature for children than the ^Esop's " Fables." 
Some of the commonest have been expanded into 
little stories which are presented orally to children in 
the first school year, as "The Lion and the Mouse," 
" The Ants and the Grasshoppers," " The Dog and his 
Shadow," and others. They are so simple and direct 
that they are used alongside the fairy tales for the 
earliest instruction of children. 

As soon as children have acquired the rudiments of 
reading the ^Esop's " Fables " are commonly used in 
the second and third school year as a reading book, 
and all the early reading books are partly made up 
from this material. 

If we inquire into the qualities of these stories 
which have given them such a universal acceptance, 
we shall find that they contain in a simple, transparent 
form a good share of the world's wisdom. More 
recent researches indicate that they originated in 
IncUa, and reached Europe through Persia and Arabia, 
being ascribed to ^sop. This indicates that like 
most early Hterature of lasting worth, they are prod- 
ucts of the folk-mind rather than of a single writer, 
and it is the opinion of Adler that they express the 
ripened wisdom of the people under the forms of 
Oriental despotism. The sad and hopeless submis- 
sion to a stronger power expressed by some of the 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 7 1 

fables, it is claimed, unfits them for use in our freer 
life to-day. 

There are certain points in which their attractive- 
ness to children is clearly manifest. The actors in 
the stories are usually animals, and the ready inter- 
est and sympathy of children for talking animals 
are at once appealed to. In all the early myths 
and fairy tales, human life seems to merge into that 
of the animals, as in " Hiawatha," and the fables 
likewise are a marked expression of this childlike 
tendency. 

Adler says : *' The question may be asked why 
fables are so popular with boys. I should say be- 
cause schoolboy society reproduces in miniature, to 
a certain extent, the social conditions which are re- 
flected in the fables. Among unregenerate school- 
boys there often exists a kind of despotism, not the 
less degrading because petty. The strong are pitted 
against the weak — witness the fagging system in 
English schools — and their mutual antagonism pro- 
duces in both the characteristic vices which we have 
noted above." A literature which clearly pictures 
these relations so that they can be seen objectively 
by the children may be of the greatest social service 
in education. 

Adler says further: "The psychological study of 
schoolboy society has been only begun, but even what 
lies on the surface will, I think, bear out this remark. 
Now it has become one of the commonplaces of 



72 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

educational literature that the individual of to-day 
must pass through the same stages of evolution as 
the human race as a whole. But it should not be 
forgotten that the advance of civilization depends on 
two conditions : first, that the course of evolution be 
accelerated, that the time allowed to the successive 
stages be shortened ; and, secondly, that the unworthy 
and degrading elements which entered into the pro- 
cess of evolution in the past, and at the time were 
inseparable from it, be now eliminated. Thus the 
fairy tales which correspond to the myth-making 
epoch in human history must be purged of the dross 
of superstition which still adheres to them, and the 
fables which correspond to the age of primitive 
despotisms must be cleansed of the immoral elements 
they still embody." ^ 

The peculiar form of moral teaching in the "Fables" 
suits them especially to children. A single trait of 
conduct, like greediness or selfishness, is sharply 
outlined in the story and its results made plain. ** We 
have seen nothing finer in teaching than the building 
up of these little stories in conversational lessons — 
first to illustrate some mental or moral trait ; then to 
detach the idea from its story picture, and find illus- 
trations for it in some other act or incident. And 
nothing can be more gratifying as a result, than, 
through the transparency of childish hearts, to watch 
the growth of right conduct from the impulses derived 

lAdler, Moral Instruction of Children, pp. 88-89. 



FIRST GRADE STORIES 73 

from the teaching ; and so laying the foundations of 
future rightness of character." ^ 

The moral ideas inculcated by the fables are usually 
of a practical, worldly-wisdom sort, not high ideals of 
moral quality, not virtue for its own sake, but varied 
examples of the results of rashness and folly. This 
is, perhaps, one reason why they are so well suited 
to the immature moral judgments of children. 

Adler says : " Often when a child has committed 
some fault, it is useful to refer by name to the fable 
that fits it. As, when a boy has made room in his 
seat for another, and the other crowds him out, the 
mere mention of the fable of the porcupine is a 
telling rebuke; or the fable of the hawk and the 
pigeons may be called to mind when a boy has 
been guilty of mean excuses. On the same principle 
that angry children are sometimes taken before a 
mirror to show them how ugly they look, the fable 
is a kind of mirror for the vices of the young." 
Again ; *' The peculiar value of the fables is that 
they are instantaneous photographs which repro- 
duce, as it were, in a single flash of light, some one 
aspect of human nature, and which, excluding every- 
thing else, permit the attention to be entirely fixed 
on that one." 

But the value of the fable reaches far beyond 
childhood. The frequency with which it is cited in 
nearly all the forms of literature, and its aptness 

^ Introduction to Stickney's ^sofs Fables. Ginn & Co. 



74 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

to express the real meaning of many episodes in 
real life, in politics and social events, in peace and 
war, show the universality of the truth it embodies. 
A story which engraves a truth, as it were with a 
diamond point, upon a child's mind, a truth which 
will swiftly interpret many events in his later life, 
deserves to take a high place among educative in- 
fluences. 

FABLES AND NATURE MYTHS 

Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
iEsop's Fables (Stickney). Ginn & Co. 
Book of Legends (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Stories for Children (Lane). The American Book Co. 
A Child's Garden of Verses (Stevenson). Scribner's Sons, 
y^sop's Fables. Educational Publishing Co. 
The Book of Nature Myths (Holbrook). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
The Moral Instruction of Children (Adler), Chapters VII and 
VIII. D. Appleton & Co. 



CHAPTER IV 

Second Grade Stories 

" robinson crusoe " 

In selecting suitable literature for children of the 
second grade, we follow in the steps of a number 
of distinguished writers and teachers and choose an 
English classic — " Robinson Crusoe." Rousseau gave 
this book his unqualified approval, and said that it 
would be the first, and, for a time, the only book 
that Emile should read. The Herbartians have been 
using it a number of years, while many American 
teachers have employed it for oral work in second 
grade, in a short school edition. In one sense, the 
book needs no introduction, as it has found its way 
into every nook and corner of the world. Originally 
a story for adults, it has reached all, and illustrated 
Christmas editions, designed even for children from 
three years and upward, are abundant. To the 
youth of all lands, it has been, to say the least, a 
source of delight, but it has been regarded as a 
book for the family and home. What would hap- 
pen should the schoolmaster lay his hand on this 
treasure and desecrate it to school purposes ! We 

75 



76 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

desire to test this classic work on the side of its 
pedagogical value and its adaptation to the uses of 
regular instruction. If it is really unrivalled as a 
piece of children's literature, perhaps it has also 
no equal for school purposes. 

In making the transition from the fairy tale to 
" Robinson Crusoe," an interesting difference or con- 
trast may be noticed. Wilmann says : i " ' Crusoe ' is 
at once simple, and plain, and fanciful; to be sure, 
in the latter case, entirely different from the fairy 
tale. In the fairy story the fancy seldom pushes 
rudely against the boundaries of the real world. 
But otherwise in ' Crusoe.* Here it is the practical 
fancy that is aroused, if this expression appear not 
contradictory. What is Crusoe to do now ? How can 
he help himself ? What means can he invent ? Many 
of the proposals of the children will have to be re- 
jected. The inexorable * not possible ' shoves a bolt 
before the door. The imagination is compelled to 
limit itself to the task of combining and adjusting 
real things. The compulsion of things conditions 
the progress of the story. * Thoughts dwell together 
easily, but things jostle each other roughly in space.'" 

There are other striking differences between " Cru- 
soe " and the folk-lore stories, but in this contrast we 
are now chiefly concerned. After reaching the island, 
he is checked and limited at every step by the physi- 
cal laws imposed by nature. Struggle and fret as 

1 Wilmann, Paedago^sche VortrSge. 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 'J'J 

he may against these limits, he becomes at last a 
philosopher, and quietly takes up the struggle for 
existence under those inexorable conditions. The 
child of seven or eight is vaguely acquainted with 
many of the simple employments of the household 
and of the neighborhood. Crusoe also had a vague 
memory of how people in society in different trades 
and occupations supply the necessaries and com- 
forts of life. Even the fairy stories give many hints 
of this kind of knowledge, but Robinson Crusoe is 
face to face with the sour facts. He is cut off from 
help and left to his own resources. The interest in 
the story is in seeing how he will shift for himself 
and exercise his wits to insure plenty and comfort. 
With few tools and on a barbarous coast, he under- 
takes what men in society, by mutual exchange and 
by division of labor, have much difficulty in perform- 
ing. Crusoe becomes a carpenter, a baker and cook, 
a hunter, a potter, a fisher, a farmer, a tailor, a boat- 
man, a stock-raiser, a basket-maker, a shoemaker, a 
tanner, a fruit-grower, a mason, a physician. And 
not only so, but he grapples with the difficulties of 
each trade or occupation in a bungling manner be- 
cause of inexperience and lack of skill and exact 
knowledge. He is an experimenter and tester 
along many fines. The entire absence of helpers 
centres the whole interest of this varied struggle in 
one person. It is to be remembered that Crusoe is 
no genius, but the ordinary boy or man. He has 



^8 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

abundant variety of needs such as a child reared 
under civiUzed conditions has learned to feel. The 
whole range of activities, usually distributed to various 
classes and persons in society, rests now upon his 
single shoulders. If he were an expert in all direc- 
tions, the task would be easier, but he has only vague 
knowledge and scarcely any skill. The child, there- 
fore, who reads this story, by reason of the slow, 
toilsome, and bungling processes of Crusoe in meet- 
ing his needs, becomes aware how difficult and labo- 
rious are the efforts by which the simple, common 
needs of all children are supplied. 

A reference to the different trades and callings 
that Crusoe assumes will show us that he is not deal- 
ing with rare and unusual events, but with the com- 
mon, simple employments that lie at the basis of 
society in all parts of the world. The carpenter, the 
baker, the farmer, the shoemaker, etc., are at work in 
every village in every land. Doubtless this is one 
reason why the story acquires such a hold in the 
most diverse countries. The Arab or the Chinese 
boy, the German or American child, finds the story 
touching the ordinary facts of his own surroundings. 
Though the story finds its setting in a far-away, 
lonely island in tropical seas, Crusoe is daily trying 
to create the objects and conditions of his old home 
in England. But these are the same objects that 
surround every child ; and therefore, in reading " Rob- 
inson Crusoe," the pupil is making an exhaustive and 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 79 

interesting study of his own home. The presence of 
a tropical vegetation and of a strange climate does 
not seriously impair this fact. The skill of a great 
literary artist appears in his power to create a situa- 
tion almost devoid of common comforts and bless- 
ings and then in setting his hero to work to create 
them by single-handed effort. 

It will hardly be questioned that the study of the 
home and home neighborhood by children is one of 
the large and prominent problems in education. Out 
of their social, economic, and physical environment 
children get the most important lessons of life. Not 
only does the home furnish a varied fund of informa- 
tion that enables them to interpret books, and people, 
and institutions, as they sooner or later go out into 
the world, but all the facts gathered by experience 
and reading in distant fields must flow back again to 
give deeper meaning to the labors and duties which 
surround each citizen in his own home. But society 
with its commerce, education, and industries, is an 
exceedingly complex affair. The child knows not 
where to begin to unravel this endless machinery of 
forms and institutions. In a sense he must get away 
from or disentangle himself from his surroundings in 
order to understand them. There are no complex 
conditions surrounding Crusoe, and he takes up the 
labors of the common trades in a simple and primi- 
tive manner. Physical and mental effort are de- 
manded at every step, from Crusoe and from the 



80 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

children. Many of his efforts involve repeated fail- 
ure, as in making pottery, in building a boat, while 
some things that he undertakes with painful toil 
never attain success. The lesson of toil and hard- 
ship connected with the simple industries is one of 
great moment to children. Our whole social fabric 
is based on these toils, and it is one of the best 
results of a sound education to realize the place and 
importance of hard work. I 

It scarcely needs to be pointed out that Crusoe 
typifies a long period of man's early history, the age 
when men were learning the rudiments of civilization 
by taking up the toils of the blacksmith, the agri- 
culturist, the builder, the domesticator of animals and 
plants. Men emerged from barbarism as they slowly 
and painfully gained the mastery over the resources 
of nature. Crusoe is a sort of universal man, em- 
bodying in his single effort that upward movement 
of men which has steadily carried them to the higher 
levels of progress. It has been said with some truth 
that Robinson Crusoe is a philosophy of history. 
But we scarcely need such a high-sounding name. 
To the child he is a very concrete, individual man, 
with very simple and interesting duties. 

In a second point the author of " Robinson Crusoe " 
shows himself a literary master. There is an intense 
and naive realism in his story. Even if one were so 
disposed, it would require a strong effort to break 
loose from the feeling that we are in the presence of 



/ 

SECOND GRADE STORIES 8 1 

real experiences. There is a quiet but irresistible 
assumption of unvarnished and even disagreeable 
fact in the narrative. But it is useless to describe 
the style of a book so familiar. Its power over 
youthful fancy and feeling has been too often experi- 
enced to be doubted. The vivid interest which the 
book awakens is certain to carry home whatever les- 
sons it may teach with added force. So great is this 
influence that boys sometimes imitate the efforts of 
Crusoe by making caves, building ovens, and assum- 
ing a style of dress and living that approximates 
Crusoe's state. This supplies to teachers a hint of 
some value. The story of Crusoe should lead to 
excursions into the home neighborhood for the pur- 
pose of a closer examination of the trades and occu- 
pations there represented. An imitation of his labors 
may also be encouraged. The effort to mould and 
bake vessels from potter's clay, the platting of bas- 
kets from willow withes, the use of tools in making 
boxes or tables may be attempted far enough to dis- 
cover how lacking in practical ability the children 
are. This will certainly teach them greater respect 
for manual skill. 

From the previous discussion it might appear that 
we regard the story of Crusoe as technological and 
industrial rather than moral. But it would be a mis- 
take to suppose that a book is not moral because it is 
not perpetually dispensing moral platitudes. Most 
men's lives are mainly industrial. The display of 



82 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

moral qualities is only occasional and incidental. 
The development of moral character is coincident 
with the labors and experiences of life and springs 
out of them, being manifested by the spirit with 
which one acts toward his fellow-men. But Crusoe 
was alone on his island, and there might seem to be 
no opportunity to be moral in relation to others. So- 
ciety, to be sure, was conspicuous by its absence. 
But the intense longing with which he thought of 
the home and companionships lost is perhaps the 
strongest sentiment in the book. His loneliness 
brings out most vividly his true relation to home and 
friends. 

His early life, till the shipwreck, was that of a way- 
ward and reckless youth, disobedient to parents and 
seemingly without moral scruples. Even during the 
first months upon the island there appears little moral 
change or betterment. But slowly the bitter experi- 
ences of his lonely life sober him. He finds a Bible, 
and a fit of sickness reveals the distresses that may 
lie before him. When once the change has set in, it 
is rapid and thorough. He becomes devout, he longs 
to return to his parents and atone for his faults. A 
complete reformation of his moral disposition is 
effected. If one will take the pains to read the 
original " Robinson Crusoe " he will find it surpris- 
ingly serious and moral in its tone. He devotes 
much time to soliloquizing on the distresses of his 
condition and upon the causes which have brought 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 83 

him to misery. He diagnoses his case with an 
amount of detail that must be tedious to children. 
The fact that these parts of the book often leave 
little direct impression upon children is proof that 
they are chiefly engaged with the adventure and 
physical embarrassments of Crusoe. For the present 
it is sufficient to observe that the story is deeply and 
intensely moral both in its spirit and in the changes 
described in " Crusoe." 

We are next led to inquire whether the industrial 
and moral lessons contained in this story are Hkely to 
be extracted from it by a boy or girl who reads it 
alone, without the aid of a teacher. Most young 
readers of ** Crusoe " are carried along by the inter- 
esting adventure. It is a very surprising and enter- 
taining story. But children even less than adults are 
incHned to go deeper than the surface and draw up 
hidden treasures. De Foe's work is a piece of classic 
literature. But few people are inclined to get at the 
deeper meaning and spirit of a classical masterpiece 
unless they go through it in companionship with a 
teacher who is gifted to disclose its better meaning. 
This is true of any classical product we might men- 
tion. It should be the peculiar function of the 
school to cultivate a taste, and an appreciative taste, 
for the best literature ; not by leaving it to the hap- 
hazard home reading of pupils, but by selecting the 
best things adapted to the minds of children and then 
employing true teaching skill to bring these treas- 



84 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

ures close to the hearts and sympathies of children. 
Many young people do not read " Robinson Crusoe " at 
all ; many others do not appreciate its better phases. 
The school will much improve its work by taking 
for its own this best of children's stories, and by 
extending and deepening the children's appreciation 
of a classic, 
-^"^^^he story of Robinson Crusoe is made by the 
Herbartians the nucleus for the concentration of 
studies in the second year. This importance is 
given to it on account of its strong moral tone and 
because of its universal typical character in man's 
development. Without attempting a solution of the 
problem of concentration at this juncture, we should 
at least observe the relations of this story to the 
other studies. Wilmann says : " The everywhere 
and nowhere of the fairy tale gives place to the 
first geographical limitations. The continents, the 
chief countries of Europe, come up, besides a series 
of geographical concepts such as island, coast, bay, 
river, hill, mountain, sea, etc. The difference in 
climate is surprising. Crusoe fears the winter and 
prepares for it, but his fear is needless, for no winter 
reaches his island." We have already observed its 
instructive treatment of the common occupations 
which prepare for later geographical study, as well 
as for natural science. 

Many plants and animals are brought to notice 
which would furnish a good beginning for natural 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 85 

science lessons. It is advisable, however, to study 
rather those home animals and plants which corre- 
spond best to the tropical products or animals in the 
lessons. Tropical fruits, the parrot, and the goat we 
often meet at home, but in addition, the sheep, the 
ox, the mocking-bird, the woodpecker, our native 
fruits and grains, and the iish, turtles, and minerals 
of the home, may well be suggested and studied in 
science lessons parallel with the life of Crusoe. 

Following upon the oral treatment and discussion 
of " Robinson Crusoe " the children are easily led to 
like efforts at construction, as, for instance, the mak- 
ing of a raft, the building of the cave and stockade, 
the making of chairs and tables, the moulding of jars 
and kettles out of clay, the weaving of baskets, the 
preparation and cooking of foods, the planting of 
grains, the construction of an oven or house, boat 
building, and other labors of Crusoe in providing for 
his wants. 

It is quite customary now in second grade to set 
the children to work in these efforts to solve Crusoe's 
problems, so that they, by working with actual 
materials, may realize more fully the difficulties and 
trials to which he was subjected. In close connec- 
tion with these constructive efforts are the drawings 
of the scenes of the story, such as the shipwreck, 
the stockade, the boat, the map of the island, and 
some of the later events of the story. A still further 
means of giving reality to the events is to dramatize 



86 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 7*^^ 

some of the scenes between Friday and Crusoe, and 
to dress and equip these and other persons in the 
story in fitting manner. The children gladly enter 
into such dramatic action. These various forms of 
drawing, action, and constructive work are in close 
connection with the home studies of industries and 
occupations, — farming, gardening, carpenter and 
blacksmith shops, weaving, cooking, bakeries, and ex- 
cursions to shops — which follow the Crusoe story 
in the study of home geography in the third grade. 

Although the story should be given and discussed 
orally, the children should also read it later as a part 
of the regular reading exercise of the course. 
Instead of suffering from this repetition, their inter- 
est will only be increased. Classical products usu- 
ally gain by repetition. The facts are brought out 
more clearly and the deeper meaning is perceived. 
To have the oral treatment of a story precede its 
reading by some weeks or months produces an excel- 
lent effect upon the style of the reading. The 
thought being familiar, and the interest strong, the 
expression will be vigorous and natural. Children 
take a pride in reading a story which they at first 
must receive orally for lack of reading power. 

The same advantageous drill in the use of good 
English accrues to the Crusoe story that was ob- 
served in the fairy tales. There is abundant oppor- 
tunity for oral narrative and description. 

The use of the pencil and chalk in graphic repre- 



/" SECOND GRADE STORIES 8/ 

sentation should be encouraged both in teacher and 
in pupils. Thus the eye becomes more accurate in 
observation and the hand more free and facile in 
tracing the outlines of the interesting forms studied. 
The use of tools and materials in construction gives 
ideas an anchorage, not only in the brain, but even 
in the nerves and muscles. 

In thus glancing over the field we discover the 
same many-sided and intimate relation with other 
school studies, as in the previous grade. In fact, 
** Crusoe " is the first extended classical masterpiece 
which is presented to the children as a whole. Such 
parts of the story as are of most pedagogical value 
should be simplified and woven together into a con- 
tinuous narrative. That part of the story which pre- 
cedes the shipwreck may be reduced to a few 
paragraphs which bring out clearly his early home 
surroundings, his disobedience and the desertion of 
his parents, and the voyage which led to his lonely 
life upon the island. The period embraced in his 
companionless labors and experiences constitutes the 
important part for school uses. A few of the more 
important episodes following the capture of Friday 
and his return home may be briefly told. We deem it 
a long step forward to get some of our great classical 
masterpieces firmly embedded in the early years of 
our school course. It will contribute almost as much 
to the culture and stimulation of teachers as of pupils. 

The method of handling this narrative before the 



88 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

class will be similar to that of the fairy tales. A 
simple and vivid recital of the facts, with frequent 
questions and discussions, so as to draw the story- 
closer to the child's own thought and experience, 
should be made by the teacher. Much skill in illus- 
trative device, in graphic description, in diagram or 
drawing, in the appeal to the sense experiences of 
the pupils, is in demand. The excursion to places of 
interest in the neighborhood suggested by the story 
begins to be an important factor of the school exer- 
cises. As children grow older they acquire skill and 
confidence in oral narrative, and should be held to 
greater independence in oral reproductions. 

One of the best school editions of ** Robinson 
Crusoe " is published by Ginn & Co. 

A simple edition for second grade is published by 
the Public School Publishing Co. 

The teacher should be supplied with one of the 
larger, fuller editions of *' Robinson Crusoe," like that 
of Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., in the Riverside Litera- / 
ture Series. It furnishes a much fuller detail of 
knowledge for the teacher's use. It will also be of 
great advantage for classroom use to possess an illus- 
trated edition like that of George Routledge & Sons. 
The full treatment of this story, first in simple, 
oral narrative, later by its use as a reading book, 
and later still by the child reading the complete 
edition for himself in private, illustrates the intensive 
concentration of thought and constructive activity 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 89 

upon a great piece of literature as opposed to a loose 
and superficial treatment. Such a piece of work 
should remain for life a source of deeper thought, 
feeling, and experience. 

OTHER EDITIONS 

Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. American Book Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. Lee and Shepard. 

Robinson Crusoe for Youngest Readers. Educational Pub. Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. University Publishing Co. 

De Foe's Robinson Crusoe (Hale). Ginn & Co. 

De Foe's Robinson Crusoe. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

" HIAWATHA " 

The Story of Hiawatha has been much used for 
oral treatment in primary grades, and as a basis for 
exercises in learning to read. Later the complete 
poem has been much read in third, fourth, or fifth 
grade as a piece of choice literature. 

A story which is growing so rapidly in favor with 
primary teachers may explain our eflFort to deter- 
mine its educational value. 

That the story begins with the early childhood of 
Hiawatha and describes his home and early training 
at the feet of Nokomis, is at least one point in its 

favor. 

By the shores of Gitche Gumee, 
By the shining Big-Sea-Water, 
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, 
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. 
Dark behind it rose the forest, 



90 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, 
Rose the firs with cones upon them ; 
Bright before it beat the water, 
Beat the clear and sunny water, 
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water. 
There the wrinkled, old Nokomis 
Nursed the little Hiawatha, 
Rocked him in his linden cradle, 
Bedded soft in moss and rushes, 
Safely bound with reindeer sinews. 

The traditions and stories he learned from the lips 
of Nokomis will remind children of their own home 
life, while his companionship with birds and animals 
will touch them in a sympathetic place. 

Then the little Hiawatha 
Learned of every bird its language. 
Learned their names and all their secrets, 
How they built their nests in Summer, 
Where they hid themselves in Winter, 
Talked with them whene'er he met them, 
Called them " Hiawatha's Chickens." 

The games and exercises of his youth will remind 
them of their own sports and introduce them to Indian 
life. This home of Hiawatha, and the description of 
his childhood, are a happy introduction to the sim- 
ple surroundings of Indian life on the shores of the 
northern sea. 

Primitive Indian modes of life, traditions and myths, 
appeal naturally to children, and the whole story has 
this setting of early simplicity which adapts it in 
many ways to child study. The Indian nature myths. 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 9I 

which in themselves are attractive, are here woven 
into a connected series by their relation to Hiawatha 
in the training of his childhood and in the exploits of 
his manhood. 

The number of pure fairy tales scattered through 
the story adapts it especially for young children, 
while the descriptions of home customs, feasts, wed- 
dings, merrymaking, and games, show the happier 
side of their life. 

Ye who love a nation's legends, 
Love the ballads of a people, 
That like voices from afar off 
Call to us to pause and listen, 
Speak in tones so plain and childlike, 
Scarcely can the ear distinguish 
Whether they are sung or spoken ; — 
Listen to this Indian Legend, 
To this song of Hiawatha ! 
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, 
Who have faith in God and Nature, 
Who believe, that in all ages 
Every human heart is human, 
That in even savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings 
For the good they comprehend not. 
That the feeble hands and helpless. 
Groping blindly in the darkness. 
Touch God^s right hand in that darkness, 
And are lifted up and strengthened ; — ^ 
Listen to this simple story. 
To this Song of Hiawatha ! 

The description of husking time is such a pleasing 
scene, while the picture writing of the Indians, their 



92 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

totems and rude drawings, are in harmony with their 
traditions and religion. 

On the border of the forest, 
Underneath the fragrant pine-trees, 
Sat the old men and the warriors 
Smoking in the pleasant shadow. 
In uninterrupted silence 
Looked they at the gamesome labor 
Of the young men and the women; 
Listened to their noisy talking, 
To their laughter and their singing, 
Heard them chattering like the magpies, 
Heard them laughing like the blue jays. 
Heard them singing like the robins. 
And whene'er some lucky maiden 
Found a red ear in the husking, 
Found a maize-ear red as blood is, 
" Nushka ! " cried they all together, 
" Nushka ! you shall have a sweetheart, 
You shall have a handsome husband ! " 
" Ugh ! " the old men all responded 
From their seats beneath the pine-trees. 

And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets, 
The Wabenos, the Magicians, 
And the Medicine-men, the Medas, 
Painted upon bark and deer-skin 
Figures for the songs they chanted, 
For each song a separate symbol. 
Figures mystical and awful. 
Figures strange and brightly colored ; 
And each figure had its meaning. 
Each some magic song suggested. 

One of the most striking features of this story is 
its setting in nature. More than any other piece of 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 93 

literature now used in the school, it is redolent of 
fields and forest. 

Should you ask me, whence these stories, 

Whence these legends and traditions, 

With the odors of the forest, 

With the dew and damp of meadows, 

With the curling smoke of wigwams. 

With the rushing of great rivers, 

With their frequent repetitions, 

And their wild reverberations, 

As of thunder in the mountains? 

I should answer, I should tell you, 

" From the forests and the prairies, 
From the great lakes of the Northland, 
From the land of the Ojibways, 
From the land of the Dacotahs, 
From the mountains, moors, and fenlands. 
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
Feeds among the reeds and rushes." 

Should you ask where Nawadaha 
Found these songs, so wild and wayward, 
Found these legends and traditions, 
I should answer, I should tell you, 

" In the birds'-nests of the forest. 
In the lodges of the beaver, 
In the hoof-prints of the bison. 
In the eyry of the eagle! 

All the wild-fowl sang them to him. 
In the moorlands and the fenlands. 
In the melancholy marshes ; 
Chetowaik, the plover, sang them, 
Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa, 
The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
And the grouse, the Mushkodasa! " 



94 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

This description of primitive man is as complete 
an absorption into his natural surroundings as is 
possible. His food and clothing, his tents and boats, 
his weapons and war gear, are drawn directly from 
nature's first supplies, and man, in this case, seems 
almost a part of nature, so completely are his 
thoughts and activities determined and colored by his 
environment. Like the animals, in their protective 
coloring, he becomes an undistinguishable part of his 
surroundings. His nature myths and superstitions 
are but phases and expressions of the contact of his 
crude mind with forces and objects in nature. In 
this respect there are many interesting suggestions 
of similar interpretations among the Norse and 
Greek mythologies. 

The close and friendly contact of Hiawatha with 
trees and animals, his companionship with the 
squirrel, the woodpecker, and the beaver, his talking 
acquaintance with trees of the forest, with the fishes 
in the Big-Sea-Water, and with the masters of the 
winds, the storm, and the thunder, make him an in- 
teresting guide for the children among the realms of 

nature. 

Ye who love the haunts of nature, 
Love the sunshine of the meadow, 
Love the shadow of the forest, 
Love the wind among the branches, 
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm, 
And the rushing of great rivers 
Through their palisades of pine-trees, 
And the thunder in the mountains, 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 95 

Whose innumerable echoes 
Flap like eagles in their eyries ; — 
Listen to these wild traditions, 
To this Song of Hiawatha! 

A happy, sympathetic love for the sights and 
sounds in nature is a fortunate beginning of nature 
lore. The imaginative interpretations are common 
to all the early races and in full harmony with the 
temper of childhood. Even from the standpoint 
of nature study, this early poetic joy in nature de- 
scriptions is profitable. The matter-of-fact, analytic 
study of natural science in succeeding years need not 
begrudge the children this happiness, this interpre- 
tative play of the imagination, this music of field and 
forest. In early childhood, nature and poetry are 
one, and as Lowell says, " Let us not go about to 
make life duller than it is." 

The simplicity and beauty of the language and 
figure of speech make many parts of this poem 
especially appropriate for children. 

Young and beautiful was Wabun ; 
He it was who brought the morning, 
He it was whose silver arrows 
Chased the dark o'er hill and valley ; 
He it was whose cheeks were painted 
With the brightest streaks of crimson, 
And whose voice awoke the village, 
Called the deer, and called the hunter. 

He meanwhile sat weary waiting 
For the coming of Mondamin, 



96 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Till the shadows, pointing eastward, 
Lengthened over field and forest. 
Till the sun dropped from the heaven, 
Floating on the waters westward, 
As a red leaf in the Autumn 
Falls and floats upon the water. 
Falls and sinks into its bosom. 

And the pleasant water-courses. 

You could trace them through the valley, 

By the rushing in the Spring-time, 

By the alders in the Summer. 

By the white fog in the Autumn, 

By the black line in the Winter. 

The simple music and rhythm of the poetic form 
is so delightful to children that they absorb whole 
passages into their memory without conscious effort. 
The mere re-reading of parts of the poem to little 
children under six years will often produce this 
happy result. A little girl of three years picked up, 
among others, this passage : — 

Dark behind it rose the forest. 
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, 
Rose the firs with cones upon them ; 
Bright before it beat the water. 
Beat the clear and sunny water. 
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water. 

The repetitions of the same or similar passages, so 
common throughout the poem, is a successful appeal 
to children's favor. It gives the story a sort of 
Mother Goose flavor which is delightful. 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 97 

While the story centres in Hiawatha, it has a 
variety of interesting personalities, giving expression 
to the striking features of this primitive society. 
Hiawatha's loved ones, Minnehaha and old Nokomis, 
stand first, and his chosen friends are next. 

Two good friends had Hiawatha, 

Singled out from all the others, 

Bound to him in closest union, 

And to whom he gave the right hand 

Of his heart in joy and sorrow ; 

Chibiabos, the musician, 

And the very strong man, Kwasind. 

And these two, as I have told you, 
Were the friends of Hiawatha, 
Chibiabos, the musician. 
And the very strong man, Kwasind. 
Long they lived in peace together. 
Spake with naked hearts together, 
Pondering much and much contriving 
How the tribes of men might prosper. 

In connection with these persons is a most pleas- 
ing series of adventures, bringing to notice those 
heroic qualities which children love to witness. The 
very strong man, Kwasind, is a fitting companion in 
their thoughts to Samson and Hercules; and Chibia- 
bos, 

He the best of all musicians. 

He the sweetest of all singers, 

has had many a prototype since the days ot 
Orpheus. 



98 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Pau-Puk-Keewis, with his dancing and tricks, will 
also prove a curious character, something like Proteus 
of old. 

You shall hear how Pau-Puk-Keewis 
He, the handsome Yenadizze, 
Whom the people called the Storm Fool, 
Vexed the village with disturbance ; 
You shall hear of all his mischief, 
And his flight from Hiawatha, 
And his wondrous transmigrations, 
And the end of his adventures. 

The character of Hiawatha, as of the benefactor, 
of one devoted, with high purpose, to the welfare of 
his people, may be regarded as the deeper motive of 
the author. It is the thought of ideal good in 
Hiawatha which gives tone and meaning to the 
whole poem. 

You shall hear how Hiawatha 
Prayed and fasted in the forest, 
Not for greater skill in hunting, 
Not for greater craft in fishing, 
Not for triumphs in the battle, 
And renown among the warriors, 
But for profit of the people, 
For advantage of the nations. 

The views of geography and history at the begin- 
ning and close of the poem not only give a broad scope 
to the story, but have an interesting bearing upon the 
study of geography and history in those years of school 
which immediately follow. The narrative reaches 



SECOND GRADE STORIES 99 

from the Vale of Tawasentha in New York, across 
the great lakes and shining Big-Sea-Water to Min- 
nehaha and the Upper Mississippi, and even to the 
prairies and the distant Rocky Mountains beyond. 
In the summoning of the tribes at the Great Pipe 
Stone Quarry there is a broad survey of the Indian 
tribes of the United States. 

From the vale of Tawasentha, 
From the Valley of Wyoming, 
From the groves of Tuscaloosa, 
From the far-off Rocky Mountains, 
From the Northern lakes and rivers 
All the tribes beheld the signal. 
Saw the distant smoke ascending, 
The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe. 

Down the rivers, o'er the prairies. 
Came the warriors of the nations. 

A map of North America is necessary for showing 
the meaning of this description to the children. 

In the last part the coming of the white man 
and the prophecy of his spreading over the land, 
and the dwindling of the native tribes to the west- 
ward, are given. 

lagoo's description of the white men, their ships 
and appearance, to his people on the return from 
his travels, will greatly please the children. 

He had seen, he said, a water 
Bigger than the Big-Sea-Water, 
Broader than the Gitche Gumee, 
Bitter so that none could drink it! 



fLofO. 



lOO SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

At each other looked the warriors, 
Looked the women at each other, 
Smiled, and said, " It cannot be so! 
Kaw! " they said, " It cannot be so ; " 



Came a great canoe with pinions, 
A canoe with wings came flying. 
Bigger than a grove of pine-trees, 
Taller than the tallest tree-tops ! " 
And the old men and the women 
Looked and tittered at each other ; 
<'Kaw!" they said, " we don't believe it!" 

The story of Hiawatha has been used sufficiently 
in primary grades to show how many are its sugges- 
tions for drawing and constructive work. Little 
children take deUght in drawing the Indian tents, 
bows and arrows, pine forests, Indian warriors and 
dress, the canoe, the tomahawk, the birds and ani- 
mals. The cutting of these forms in paper they 
have fully enjoyed. 

Pictures of Indian life, collections of arrow-heads, 
the peace-pipes, articles of dress, cooking utensils, 
wampum, stone hatchets, red pipe-stone ornaments, 
or a visit to any collection of Indian relics are desir- 
able as a part of this instruction. The museums 
in cities and expositions are rich in these materials, 
and in many private collections are just the desired 
objects of study. 

It is well known that children love to construct 
tents, dress in Indian style, and imitate the mode of 



SECOND GRADE STORIES lOI 

life, the hunting, dancing, and sports of Indians. 
Teachers have taken advantage of this instinct to 
allow them to construct an Indian village on a small 
scale, and assume the dress and action of Hiawatha 
and his friends, and even to dramatize parts of the 
story. 

It is only certain selected parts of the " Hiawatha " 
that lend themselves best to the oral treatment with 
children, and that, at first, not in the poetic form. 
In fact, the oral treatment of a story in beautiful 
poetic form demands a peculiar method. 

For example, in treating the childhood of Hiawatha 
as he dwelt with old Nokomis in the tent beside the 
sea, the main facts of this episode, or a part of it, 
may be talked over by means of description, partly 
also by development, question, and answer, and when 
these things are clear, let this passage of the poem 
be read to the children. The preliminary treatment 
and discussion will put the children in possession 
of the ideas and pictures by which they can better 
appreciate and assimilate the poem. This mode of 
introducing children to a poem or literary master- 
piece is not uncommon with children in later years, 
at least in the middle grades. 

It has been customary to use nearly the whole 
poem in fourth or fifth school year for regular read- 
ing, and it is well suited to this purpose. Its use in 
primary grades for such oral treatment as we have 
described will not interfere with its employment as 



102 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

reading matter later on, but rather increase its value 
for that purpose. 

The method of handling such a poem as reading 
has been discussed in the Special Method in the 
Reading of Complete English Classics. 

A number of books have been written by prac- 
tical teachers on the use of ''Hiawatha" in primary 
grades : — 

"The Hiawatha Primer." Houghton, Mifflin, & 
Co. 

" Hints on the Study of Hiawatha" (Alice M. 
Krackowizer). A. Flanagan, publisher. 

The best edition of the " Hiawatha " is " Longfel- 
low's Song of Hiawatha," which is well illustrated. 
Published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Other editions are " The Song of Hiawatha." The 
Educational Publishing Co. 

** Longfellow's Hiawatha." The Macmillan Co. 

" Song of Hiawatha." University Publishing Co. 



CHAPTER V 
Third Grade Stories 
the mythical stories 

In the third grade we wish to bring a number of 
the mythical stories vividly before the children. The 
classical myths which belong to the literature of 
Europe are the fund from which to select the best. 
Not all, but only a few of the simple and appropriate 
stories can be chosen. Only two recitation periods a 
week are usually set apart for the oral treatment of 
these old myths. But later in the progress of the 
reading lessons other similar stories should be treated. 
The few recitation periods used for oral work are 
rather designed to introduce children to the spirit of 
this literature, to get them into the appreciative mind. 

This body of ancient myths comes down to us, 
sifted out of the early literature of the active-minded 
Greeks. They have found their way as a simple and 
charming poetry into the national literature of all the 
European countries. Is this the material suited to 
nine- and ten-year-old children ? It will not be ques- 
tioned that these myths belong to the best literary 
products of Europe, but are they suited to children ? 

It is evident that some of our best literary judges 
have deemed them appropriate. Hawthorne has put 

103 



104 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

them into a form designed especially for the young 
folk. Charles Kingsley wrote of the Greek myths 
for his children : " Now I love these old Hellens 
heartily, and they seem to me like brothers, though 
they have all been dead and gone many a hundred 
years. They are come to tell you some of their old fairy 
tales, which they loved when they were young Uke 
you. For nations begin at first by being children like 
you, though they are made up of grown men. They 
are children at first like you — men and women with 
children's hearts ; frank, and affectionate, and full 
of trust, and teachable, loving to see and learn all 
the wonders around them; and greedy also, too 
often, and passionate and silly, as children are." 

Not a few other authors of less note have tried to 
turn the classical myths of the old Greek poets into 
simple English for the entertainment and instruction 
of children. Scarcely any of these stories that have 
not appeared in various children's books in recent 
years. Taken as a whole, they are a storehouse 
of children's literature. The philosopher, Herbart, 
looked upon poems of Homer as giving ideal expres- 
sion to the boyhood of the race, and the story of 
Ulysses was regarded by him as the boy's book, — 
the Greek Robinson Crusoe. For the child of nine 
years he thought it the most suitable story. 

Kingsley says in his Introduction : " Now you must 
not think of the Greeks in this book as learned men, 
living in great cities, such as they were afterwards, 



THIRD GRADE STORIES IO5 

when they wrought all their beautiful works, but as 
country people, living on farms and in walled villages, 
in a simple, hard-working way ; so that the greatest 
kings and heroes cooked their own meals and thought 
it no shame, and made their own ships and weapons, 
and fed and harnessed their own horses. So that a 
man was honored among them, not because he hap- 
pened to be rich, but according to his skill and his 
strength and courage and the number of things he 
could do. For they were but grown-up children, 
though they were right noble children too, and it was 
with them as it is now at school, the strongest and 
cleverest boy, though he be poor, leads all the rest." 
In the introduction to the " Wonder Book " we find 
the following : ** Hawthorne took a vital interest in 
child life. He was accustomed to observe his own 
children very closely. There are private manuscripts 
extant which present exact records of what his young 
son and elder daughter said or did from hour to hour, 
the father seating himself in their playroom and 
patiently noting all that passed. To this habit of 
watchful and sympathetic scrutiny we may attribute 
in part the remarkable felicity, the fortunate ease of 
adaptation to the immature understanding, and the 
skilful appeal to the fresh imaginations which char- 
acterize his stories for the young." Hawthorne him- 
self says : " The author has long been of the opinion 
that many of the classical myths were capable of 
being rendered into very capital reading for chil- 



I06 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

dren. . . . No epoch of time can claim a copyright 
on these immortal fables. They seem never to have 
been made, and so long as man exists they can never 
perish ; but by their indestructibility itself they are 
legitimate subjects, for every age to clothe with its 
own garniture of manners and sentiment, and to 
imbue with its own morality. . . . The author has 
not always thought it necessary to write downward in 
order to meet the comprehension of children. He has 
generally suffered the theme to soar, whenever such 
was its tendency. Children possess an unestimated 
sensibility to whatever is deep or high in imagination 
or feeling so long as it is simple likewise. It is only 
the artificial and the complex that bewilder them." 

A brief analysis of the quaUties which render these 
myths so attractive will help us to see their value in 
the education of children. 

The astonishing brightness of fanciful episode and 
of pure and clear-cut imagery has an indestructible 
charm for children. They can soar into and above 
the clouds on the shining wings of Pegasus. With 
Eolus they shut up the contrary winds in an ox-hide, 
and later let them out to plague the much-suffering 
Ulysses. They watch with astonishment as Jason 
yokes the fire-breathing oxen and strews the field 
with uprooted stumps and stones as he prepares the 
soil for the seed of dragon's teeth. Each child 
becomes a poet as he recreates the sparkling bright- 
ness of these simple pictures. And when a child 



THIRD GRADE STORIES IO7 

has once suffered his fancy to soar to these mountain 
heights and ocean depths, it will no longer be possi- 
ble to make his life entirely dull and prosaic. He 
has caught glimpses of a bright world that will linger 
unfading in the uplands of his memory. And while 
they are so deep and lofty they are still, as Haw- 
thorne says, very simple. Some of the most classic 
of the old stories are indeed too long for third grade 
children ; too many persons and too much complexity, 
as in the " Tales of Troy." But on the other hand, 
many of the most beautiful of the old myths are as 
plain and simple to a child as a floating summer 
cloud. High in the sky they may be or deep in the 
reflection of some lake or spring, but clear and plain 
to the thought of a little child. These stories in their 
naive simplicity reflect the wonder and surprise with 
which a person first beholds grand and touching 
scenery, whether it be the oppressive grandeur of 
some beetling mountain crag, or the placid quiet of 
a moonlit stream. The stories selected for this grade 
should be the simplest and best : "The Golden Touch," 
" Perseus," " The Chimsera," of Hawthorne, the epi- 
sodes of the " Golden Fleece," with others similar. 

In one form or another they introduce us to the 
company of heroes, or, at least, of great and simple 
characters. Deeds of enterprise and manliness or 
of unselfishness and generosity are the climax of the 
story. To meet danger and hardship or ridicule for 
the sake of a high purpose is their underlying 



I08 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

thought. Perseus and Jason and Ulysses are all 
ambitious to prove their title to superior shrewdness 
and courage and self-control. When we get fairly 
into the mythical age, we find ourselves among the 
heroes, among those striving for mastery and leader- 
ship in great undertakings. Physical prowess and 
manly spirit are its chief virtues. And can there 
be any question that there is a time in the lives of 
children when these ideas fill the horizon of their 
thought ? Samson and David and Hercules, Bel- 
lerophon and Jason, are a child's natural thoughts - 
or, at least, they fit the frame of his mind so exactly 
that one may say the picture and the frame were 
made for each other. The history of most countries 
contains such an age of heroes. Tell in Switzerland, 
Siegfried in Germany, Bruce in Scotland, Romulus 
and Horatius at Rome, Alfred in England, are all 
national heroes of the mythical age, whose deeds are 
heroic and of public good. The Greek stories are 
only a more classic edition of this historical epoch, 
and should lead up to a study of these later products 
of European literature. 

Several forms of moral excellence are objectively 
realized or personified in these stories. 

As the wise Centaur, after teaching Jason to be 
skilful and brave, sent him out into the world, he 
said : " Well, go, my son ; the throne belongs to thy 
father and the gods love justice. But remember, wher- 
ever thou dost wander, to observe these three things : 



THIRD GRADE STORIES lOQ 

** Relieve the distressed. 

** Respect the aged. 

** Be true to thy word." ^ 

And many events in Jason's life illustrate the 
wisdom of these words. The miraculous pitcher is 
one whose fountain of refreshing milk bubbled 
always because of a gentle deed of hospitality to 
strangers. King Midas, on the other hand, experi- 
ences in most graphic form the punishment which 
ought to follow miserly greed, while his humble 
penitence brought back his daughter and the homely 
comforts of life. Bellerophon is filled with a desire 
to perform a noble deed that will relieve the distress 
of a whole people. After the exercise of much 
patience and self-control he succeeds in his gener- 
ous enterprise. Many a lesson of worldly wisdom 
and homely virtue is brought out in the story of 
Ulysses' varied and adventuresome career. 

These myths bring children into lively contact 
with European history and geography, as well as 
with its modes of life and thought. The early his- 
tory of Europe is in all cases shrouded in mist and 
legend. But even from this historically impenetra- 
ble past has sprung a Hterature that has exercised a 
profound influence upon the life and growth of the 
people. Not that children are conscious of the sig- 
nificance of these ideas, but being placed in an 

"^ Jason'' s Quest (Lowell), p. 55. 



no SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

atmosphere which is full of them, their deeper mean- 
ing gradually unfolds itself. The early myths afford 
an interesting approach for children to the history 
and geography of important countries. Those coun- 
tries they must, sooner or later, make the acquaint- 
ance of both geographically and historically, and 
could anything be designed to take stronger hold 
upon their imagination and memory than these 
charming myths, which were the poetry and religion 
of the people once living there .'' 

It is a very simple and primitive state of culture, 
whose ships, arms, agriculture, and domestic Hfe are 
given us in clear and pleasing pictures. Our own 
country is largely lacking in a mythical age. Our 
culture sprang, more than half-grown, from the 
midst of Europe's choicest nations, and out of insti- 
tutions that had been centuries in forming. The 
myths of Europe are therefore as truly ours as they 
are the treasure of Englishmen, of Germans, or of 
Greeks. Again, our own literature, as well as that 
of European states, is full of the spirit and sugges- 
tion of the mythical age. Our poets and writers 
have drawn much of their imagery from this old 
storehouse of thought, and a child will better under- 
stand the works of the present through this contact 
with mythical ages. 

In method of treatment with school classes, these 
stories will admit of a variation from the plan used with 
"Robinson Crusoe." One unaccustomed to the reading 



THIRD GRADE STORIES III 

of such stories would be at a loss for a method of 
treatment with children. There is a charm and liter- 
ary art in the presentation that may make the 
teacher feel unqualified to present them. The chil- 
dren are not yet sufficiently masters of the printed 
symbols of speech to read for themselves. Shall the 
teacher simply read the stories to children ? We 
would suggest first of all, that the teacher, who would 
expect to make use of these materials, steep himself 
fully in literature of this class, and bring his mind 
into familiar acquaintance and sympathy with its char- 
acters. In interpreting classical authors to pupils, 
we are justified in requiring of the teacher intimate 
knowledge and appreciative sympathy with his author. 
Certainly no one will teach these stories well whose 
fancy was never touched into airy flights — who can- 
not become a child again and partake of his pleas- 
ures. No condescension is needed, but ascension to 
a free and ready flight of fancy. By learning to 
drink at these ancient fountains of song and poetry, 
the teacher might learn to tell a fairy story for him- 
self. But doubtless it will be well to mingle oral narra- 
tive and description on the part of the teacher with the 
fit reading of choice parts so as to better preserve the 
classic beauty and suggestion of the author. Children 
are quite old enough now to appreciate beauty of lan- 
guage and expressive, happy turns of speech. In 
the midst of question, suggestion, and discussion be- 
tween pupil and teacher, the story should be carried 



112 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

forward, never forgetting to stop at suitable intervals 
and get such a reproduction of the story as the little 
children are capable of. And indeed they are capa- 
ble of much in this direction, for their thoughts are 
more nimble, and their power of expression more apt, 
oftentimes, than the teacher's own. 

We would not favor a simple reading of these 
stories for the entertainment of pupils. It should 
take more the form of a school exercise, requiring 
not only interest and attention, but vigorous effort to 
grasp and reproduce the thought. The result should 
be a much livelier and deeper insight into the story 
than would be secured by a simple reading for amuse- 
ment or variety. They should prepare also for an 
appreciative reading of other myths in the following 
grades. 

After all, in two or three recitation periods a week, 
extending through a year, it cannot be expected that 
children will make the acquaintance of all the litera- 
ture that could be properly called the myth of the 
heroic age in different countries. All that we may 
expect is to enter this paradise of children, to pluck 
a few of its choicest flowers, and get such a breath of 
their fragrance that there will be a child's desire to 
return again and again. The school also should pro- 
vide in the succeeding year for an abundance of read- 
ing of myths. The same old stories which they first 
learned to enjoy in oral recitations should be read in 
books, and still others should be utilized in the regu- 



THIRD GRADE STORIES II3 

lar reading classes of the fourth and fifth grades. In 
this way the myths of other countries may be brought 
in, the story of Tell, of Siegfried, of Alfred, and of 
others. 

In summarizing the advantages of a systematic 
attempt to get this simple classic lore into our 
schools, we recall the interest and mental activity 
which it arouses, its power to please and satisfy the 
creative fancy in children, its fundamental feeling 
and instincts, the virtues of bravery, manliness, and 
unselfishness, and all this in a form that still further 
increases its culture effect upon teacher and pupil. 
It should never be forgotten that teacher and pupil 
alike are here imbibing lessons and inspirations that 
draw them into closer sympathy because the subject 
is worthy of both old and young. 

In addition to the eadier Greek myths we may men- 
tion the following subjects as suitable for oral treatment : 

The story of Ulysses has been much used in schools 
with oral presentation, and is one of the best tales for 
this purpose in all Hterature. A somewhat full dis- 
cussion of the value of this story for schools is found 
in the Special Method in Reading of Complete 
English Classics. 

The Norse mythology has also received much 
attention from teachers who have used the oral mode 
of treatment. Several of the best books of Norse 
mythology are mentioned in the appended list. Also 
the great story of Siegfried. 



114 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Some of the old traditional stories in the early his- 
tory of Rome, of France, Germany, and England, have 
been used for oral narration and reading to children. 

The " Seven Little Sisters " and its companion book 
" Each and All," and the " Ten Boys on the Road 
from Long Ago to Now," by Jane Andrews, published 
by Ginn & Co., have been employed extensively for 
oral and reading work in the third and fourth years 
of school. The " Seven Little Sisters " is valuable in 
connection with the beginnings of geography. 

BOOKS FOR THIRD YEAR OF SCHOOL 

The Wonder Book of Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

The following stories are especially recommended: The 
Gorgon's Head, The Golden Touch, The Miraculous Pitcher, 
and The Chimsera. 

One should preserve as much as possible of the spirit and 
language of the author. Perhaps in classes with children the 
other stories will be found equally attractive : The Paradise 
of Children and the Three Golden Apples. Published by 
Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston. 
Kingsley's Greek Heroes. 

The stories of Perseus, the Argonauts, and Theseus, es- 
pecially adapted to children. It may be advisable for the 
teacher to abbreviate the stories, leaving out unimportant 
parts, but giving the best portions in the fullest detail. Pub- 
lished by Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. 
Story of the Iliad and Story of the Odyssey (Church). 

Simple and interesting narrative of the Homeric stories. 
The Macmillan Co. 
Jason's Quest (Lowell). 

The story of the Argonauts with many other Greek myths 
woven into the narrative. This book is a store of excellent 
material. The teacher should select from it those parts 



THIRD GRADE STORIES II5 

specially suited to the grade. Published by Sibley & Ducker, 
Chicago. 
Adventures of Ulysses (Lamb) . 

A small book from which the chief episodes of Ulysses' 
career can be obtained. Published by Ginn & Co., Boston. 
The Story of Siegfried (Baldwin). Published by Scribner's Sons. 
Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories. 

Simple and well written. A supplement to the Wonder 
Book. Published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Tales of Troy (De Garmo). 

The story of the siege of Troy and of the great events of 
Homer's Iliad. This story, on account of its complexity, 
we deem better adapted to the fourth grade. Published by 
the Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. 
Stories of the Old World (Church). 

Stories of the Argo, of Thebes, of Troy, of Ulysses, and 
of ^neas. Stories are simply and well told. It is a book 
of 350 pages, and would serve well as a supplementary reader 
in fourth grade. Published by Ginn & Co. 
Gods and Heroes (Francillon) . 

A successful effort to cover the whole field of Greek my- 
thology in the story form. Ginn & Co. 
The Tanglewood Tales (Nathaniel Hawthorne). 

A continuation of the Wonder Book. 
Heroes of Asgard. 

Stories of Norse mythology ; simple and attractive. Mac- 
millan & Co. 
The Story of Ulysses (Agnes S. Cook). 

An account of the adventures of Ulysses, told in connected 
narrative, in language easily comprehended by children in 
the third and fourth grades. Public School Publishing Co., 
Bloomington, 111. 
Old Norse Stories (Bradish). 

Stories for reference and sight reading. American Book Co. 
Norse Stories (Mabie). 

An excellent rendering of the old stories. Dodd, Mead, 
&Co, 



Il6 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Myths of Northern Lands (Guerber). American Book Co. 

The Age of Fable (Bulfinch). Lee and Shepard. 

Readings in Folk Lore (Skinner). American Book Co. 

National Epics (Rabb). A. C. McClurg & Co. 

Classic Myths (Gayley). Ginn & Co. 

Bryant's Odyssey. Complete poetic translation. Houghton, 

Mifflin, & Co. 
Bryant's Iliad. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Butcher and Lang's prose translation of the Odyssey. The Mac- 

millan Co. 
The Odyssey of Homer (Palmer). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

A prose translation. 
Myths and Myth Makers (Fiske) . 
Moral Instruction of Children (Felix Adler). Chapter X. D. 

Appleton & Co. 

THE BIBLE STORIES 

The stories of early Bible history have been much 
used in all European lands, and in America, for the 
instruction of children. Among Jews and Christians 
everywhere, and even among Mohammedans, these 
stories have been extensively used. They include 
the simple accounts of the patriarchs, Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his brethren, Moses, Joshua, 
Samson, Samuel, and David. It may be seen at a 
glance that no more famous stories than these could 
be selected from the history of any country in the 
world. They stand preeminent as graphic descrip- 
tions of the modes of life which prevailed in the early 
period of civilized races. The old patriarchs lived in 
what is usually called the pastoral age, when men 
dwelt in tents and moved about from place to place 



THIRD GRADE STORIES II7 

with their flocks in search of pasture. The patriarch 
at the head of the family, and even of a whole tribe, 
is the father, ruler, priest, and judge for the little 
community over which he presides. In his person 
there is a simple union of all the important powers 
of the later Hebrew state. The dignity and authority 
which centre in the person of Abraham, together 
with a marked gravity and strength of character, 
lend a distinct grandeur to his personality, so that he 
has been recognized in all ages as one of the great 
figures in the history of the world ; the foremost of 
the old patriarchs, — the father of the faithful. A 
similar respect and dignity attaches to all these old 
Bible characters, and in the case of Moses, rises to 
a supreme height, while in David the warrior, states- 
man, and poet are united in one of the most pro- 
nounced and pleasing characters in the world's 
history. These old stories are also unparalleled in 
the simplicity and transparent clearness with which 
the life of the pastoral age is depicted. Human 
nature comes out in a series of pictures most striking 
and individual, and yet unmistakably true to life and 
reality. And yet while this life was so small in its 
compass, it is almost wholly free from narrowness 
and provincialism. The universal qualities of human 
nature, common to men in all ages and countries, 
stand out with a clearness which even little children 
can grasp. The story of Joseph and his brethren is 
probably the finest story that was ever written for 



ri8 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

children from eight to ten years of age. The char- 
acters involved in this family history are striking and 
impressive, and the strength of the family virtues 
and affections has never been set forth with greater 
simplicity and power. 

The heroic qualities which appear in the old Bible 
stories, especially in Moses, Samson, and David, would 
bear a favorable comparison with the men of the 
heroic age in all countries. Strength of character 
combined with faith in high ideals, pursued with 
unwavering resolution, is a peculiar merit of these 
narratives. The heroes of the Hebrew race should 
be compared, later on, with the most renowned 
heroes of England, Scotland, Germany, and Greece, 
and even of America, for they have common qualities 
which have like merit as educative materials for the 
young. 

This early literature of the Bible stories will be 
found to contain a large part of the universal thought 
of the world, that is, of the masterly ideas which, 
because of their superior truth and excellence, have 
gradually worked their way as controlling principles 
into the life of all modern nations. It need hardly 
be said that these stories have a pecuHar charm 
and attractiveness for children. The simplicity of a 
patriarchal age, the strong interest in persons of 
heroic quality, the descriptions of early childhood, 
the heroic deeds of bold and high-spirited youth, — 
these things command the unfaltering interest of 



THIRD GRADE STORIES II 9 

children, and at the same time give their lives a 
touch of moral strength and ideaUsm which is of the 
highest promise. 

The oral treatment of these stories in the third or 
fourth year of school is the only mode of bringing 
them before the children in their full power, and they 
are well adapted to easy oral narrative and discussion. 
The language is the genuine, simple, powerful old 
English, and the teacher should become thoroughly 
saturated with these simple words and modes of 
thought. The dramatic element is also not lacking 
in many parts, and can be well executed in the class- 
room. Many opportunities will be furnished to the 
children for drawing pictures illustrating the stories. 
Many of the most famous masterpieces of painting 
and sculpture represent the persons and scenes of 
these tales. The great heroes of Christian art have 
exhausted their skill in these representations, which 
are now being furnished to the schools by the large 
publishing houses. Even the costumes and modes 
of life are thus brought home to the children in the 
most realistic yet artistic way. 

An acquaintance with such early stories of Hebrew 
history is an introduction to some of the finest litera- 
ture of the English language. First, that dealing with 
the Hebrew scriptures themselves, as the books of 
Moses, the psalms of David, and second, a number of 
the great poems of English masters, as the "Burial 
of Moses" and Milton's "Samson Agonistes." In 



120 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

short, we may say that these stories are the key to a 
large part of our best English thought. 

Adler, in his " Moral Instruction of Children," says : 
" The narrative of the Bible is fairly saturated with 
the moral spirit ; the moral issues are everywhere in 
the forefront. Duty, guilt, and its punishment, the 
conflict of conscience with inclination, are the lead- 
ing themes. The Hebrew people seem to have been 
endowed with what may be called * a moral genius,* 
and especially did they emphasize the filial and fra- 
ternal duties to an extent hardly equalled elsewhere. 
Now it is precisely these duties that must be im- 
pressed upon young children, and hence the biblical 
stories present us with the very material we require. 
They cannot, in this respect, be replaced ; there is 
no other literature in the world that offers what is 
equal to them in value for the particular object we 
now have in view." 

If we could only contemplate the patriarchal stories 
as a part of the great literature of the world, on 
account of its typical yet realistic portraiture of men 
and women, we might use this material as we use the 
very best derived from other sources. Mr. Adler 
remarks that "this typical quality in Homer's por- 
traiture has been one secret of its universal impres- 
siveness. The Homeric outlines are in each case 
brilliantly distinct, while they leave to the reader a 
certain liberty of private conception, and he can fill 
them in to satisfy his own ideal. We may add that 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 121 

this is just as true of the Bible as of Homer. The 
biblical narrative, too, depicts a few essential traits of 
human nature, and refrains from multiplying minor 
traits which might interfere with the main effect. 
The Bible, too, draws its figures in outline, and leaves 
every age free to fill them in so as to satisfy its own 
ideal." 

Moreover, their use is not a matter of experiment. 
For hundreds of years they have held the first place 
in the best homes and schools of Germany, England, 
and America, and their educative influence has been 
profoundly felt in all Christian nations. 

We have several editions of the stories adapted 
from the Bible for school use. In the Bible itself 
they are not found in the simple, connected form that 
makes them available for school use. One of the 
best editions for school is that published by Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co., called, *'01d Testament Stories in 
Scriptural Language." A free and somewhat origi- 
nal rendering of the stories is given by Baldwin in 
his *'01d Stories of the East," published by the 
American Book Co. Both of these books have been 
extensively used in the schools of this country. The 
oral treatment of the Bible stories in the schools has 
not been common in this country, but it has all the 
merits described by us in the chapter on oral instruc- 
tion. In fourth and fifth grades these books may 
serve well for exercises in reading. 

In a great many schools of this country they can 



122 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

be used and are used without giving offence to any- 
body, and where this is true, they well deserve recog- 
nition in our school course because of their superior 
presentation of some of the great universal ideas of 
our civilization. 

BOOKS FOR TEACHERS OF BIBLE LITERATURE 

The Modern Reader's Bible, twenty-one volumes (Richard Moul- 

ton). The Macmillan Co. 
Children's Series. Old Testament and New Testament Stories. 

In two volumes. The Macmillan Co. 
Stories from the Bible (Church). The Macmillan Co. 
Story of the Chosen People (Guerber). The American Book Co. 
The Literary Study of the Bible (Moulton). D. C. Heath & Co. 

STORIES OF ROBIN HOOD 

In the latter part of third grade or beginning of 
fourth, the stories of Robin Hood are likely to prove 
exhilarating to children. 

These stories of the bold, manly, good-natured 
outlaw, with his band of trusty men in Sherwood 
Forest, have been famous throughout England these 
five hundred years, and the stories themselves, and 
the ballads accompanying them, are a genuine part 
of the treasures of the older EngHsh literature. 
They have been worked by Howard Pyle into the 
stout, hearty English style which is so appropriate 
to the rendering of the deeds of this sturdy English 
yeoman and his band. 

Their careless life and woodland sports under the 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 1 23 

Greenwood Tree, and their merry adventures and 
shooting matches, have been the deUght of many 
a generation of English children. But even their 
woodland sports were a severe and rugged training 
in hardy endurance and manly spirit. Pyle says 
well in his preface : " For honest purposes manfully 
followed and hard knocks courageously endured 
must always interest the wholesome boy; while na- 
ture is so closely akin to man in the golden days of 
his green youth that tales of the Greenwood, where 
the leaves rustle and the birds sing, and all the air 
is full of sweet savors of growing things, must ever 
have a potent charm for the fresh imagination of 
childhood." 

One phase of this training, as manifested in the 
stories, is not only the ability to take hard knocks 
and keep a stiff upper Up, as the old saying goes, 
but to master chagrin and anger and endure fun and 
gibes at one's own expense; indeed, even with aching 
bones and buzzing ears, to join in the merriment 
over one's own discomfiture. This is an unusual 
accompaniment of even good stories, which makes 
them truly wholesome. The fun of the stories also 
is of a light and rollicking sort which children should 
have a chance to thoroughly enjoy. In fact it is 
excellent material upon which to cultivate their early 
sense of the comic and humorous. The literature 
used in early school years has, unfortunately, too 
little of the sportive and laughable, and the Robin 



124 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Hood adventures will help in no small degree to 
remedy this defect. 

It is interesting to note, also, that brute strength 
is not at a premium, but skill and quick-wittedness. 
Not the least attractive and forcible part of Robin 
Hood's character is the shrewd-witted versatility and 
boldness with which he plays any part which circum- 
stances require him to assume. His foes are circum- 
vented by his shrewdness and keen wit even as much 
as by his unfailing skill in archery or dexterous 
strength in personal contest. 

Robin Hood's relation to the British government 
was known as that of the outlaw, although the visit 
of King Richard to him in Sherwood Forest and his 
service under that prince and others gave him a cer- 
tain legal status. He has always been regarded as 
a popular hero representing the rights of the com- 
mon people. 

After describing Robin Hood's first adventure 
with the foresters and his outlawry, Howard Pyle 
says : " But Robin Hood lay hidden in Sherwood 
Forest for one year, and in that time there gathered 
around him many others like himself, outlawed for 
this cause and for that. 

" So, in all that year, five score or more good, stout 
yeomen joined themselves to him, and chose him to 
be their leader and chief. Then they vowed that 
even as they themselves had been despoiled they 
would despoil their oppressors, whether baron, abbot. 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 12$ 

knight, or squire, and that from each they would 
take that which had been wrung from the poor by 
unjust taxes, or land rents, or in wrongful fines ; but 
to the poor folk they would give a helping hand in 
need and trouble, and would return to them that 
which had been unjustly taken from them. Besides 
this, they swore never to harm a child, nor to wrong 
a woman, be she maid, wife, or widow; so that, after 
a while, when the people began to find that no harm 
was meant to them, but that money or food came in 
time of want to many a poor family, they came to 
praise Robin and his merry men, and to tell many 
tales of him and of his doings in Sherwood Forest, 
for they felt him to be one of themselves." 

When we consider the stories which tradition has 
handed down relative to the exploits of Robin Hood, 
the Old-English ballads which celebrate them in 
song, the stories of King Richard's visit to him in 
Sherwood, and Robin's visit to the court of Eleanor 
and King Henry at London town, to share in the 
great shooting-match, and the story of Locksley in 
Scott's "Ivanhoe" — we might almost say that 
Robin Hood would bear favorable comparison with 
any Englishman of his time. At any rate it would 
be difficult to find among the kings and great lords 
of that age one who had so much regard for justice 
and fair dealing among men, to say nothing of his 
kindness to the poor and needy. 

He stands distinctly for those rights of the com- 



126 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

mon people which were constantly violated by the 
powerful and influential in that half-barbarous age 
of feudalism. It is from this instinct for popular 
rights that the body of English liberties has gradu- 
ally developed, and it is not strange that Robin 
Hood has always been regarded as a hero among 
a people who have preserved this instinct for liberty 
and justice. 

The foresters of Robin Hood's band were lovers 
of forest and glade; the song of the bird and fra- 
grance of wild flowers were sweet to them. In Pyle's 
introductory chapter is this description of their re- 
treat under the Greenwood. " So turning their backs 
upon the stream, they plunged into the forest once 
more, through which they traced their steps till they 
reached the spot where they dwelt in the depths of 
the woodland. There had they built huts of bark 
and branches of trees, and made couches of sweet 
rushes spread over with skins of fallow deer. Here 
stood a great oak tree with branches spreading 
broadly around, beneath which was a seat of green 
moss where Robin Hood was wont to sit at feast 
and at merrymaking, with his stout men about him. 
Here they found the rest of the band, some of whom 
had come in with a brace of fat does. Then they 
built great fires, and after the feast was ready they 
all sat down, but Robin Hood placed Little John at 
his right hand, for he was henceforth to be the 
second in the band." 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 12/ 

Little John's bout with the tanner of Blyth is 
introduced thus : — 

*' One fine day, not long after Little John had left 
abiding with the Sheriff and had come back to the 
merry Greenwood, Robin Hood and a few chosen 
fellows of his band lay upon the soft sward beneath 
the Greenwood Tree where they dwelt. The day 
was warm and sultry, so that whilst most of the band 
were scattered through the forest upon this mission 
and upon that, these few stout fellows lay lazily 
beneath the shade of the tree, in the soft afternoon, 
passing jests among themselves and telling merry 
stories, with laughter and mirth. 

" All the air was laden with the bitter fragrance of 
the May, and all the bosky shades of the woodlands 
beyond rang with the sweet song of birds, — the 
throstle-cock, the cuckoo, and the wood-pigeon, — 
and with the song of birds mingled the cool sound 
of the gurgling brook that leaped out of the forest 
shades, and ran fretting amid its rough gray stones 
across the sunlit open glade before the try sting-tree." 

This delight in the beauty and music of all nature 
about them is a sort of atmosphere which gives tone 
to all the stories of this group. 

The language in which the stories are narrated is 
rich in the quaint and vigorous phrases of Old 
English, reminding one of the times of Shakespeare 
and before. One could hardly give the children a 
better introduction to the riches of our mother tongue. 



128 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

The description of English customs, the popular 
festivities, the booths of the market town, the parade 
of feudal lords and retainers, the constraints placed 
upon hunting by kings and lords, and the hardships 
of the poor are touched upon in significant ways. 
The stories give an insight into the EngUsh charac- 
ter, their love of rude sports, their ballad literature, 
and their respect for honesty and courage and 
shrewdness. 

The ballads associated with the Robin Hood 
legends are often beautiful and striking expressions 
of the English spirit, and have a special charm for 
children. They should be read in connection with 
the later reading of the stories in the third and 
fourth school years. 

The bearing of these tales upon early feudal his- 
tory and the general literature of that age is of im- 
portance. This is well illustrated in "Ivanhoe" in 
the use by Richard of Robin Hood and his archers in 
the attack upon Torquilstone, and in various exploits 
of the men of the Greenwood when brought in con- 
tact with knights on horseback. There is also a 
kinship in these narratives with some of the best 
stories and novels of early English history, as Scott's 
*' Tales of a Grandfather," Kingsley's " Hereward the 
Wake," Jane Andrew's " Gilbert the Page," and a 
number of Scott's novels. 

In the oral treatment of the stories in the third or 
fourth school year, the teacher will find her powers 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 129 

of presentation taxed in a peculiar way. The quaint 
language and humorous tone, the occasional witty- 
conceits, will need to be appreciated and enjoyed, and 
the mode of presentation suited to the thought. Let 
the teacher first of all thoroughly enjoy the stories 
and in rendering them to children in the classroom 
lose herself in the tone and spirit of the account. It 
requires great freedom and flexibility of body and 
mind to do this well, but that is what a teacher most 
of all needs. The humorous part, especially, will re- 
quire a certain unbending of the stiff manners of a 
teacher, but no harm is done in this. 

The large volume of Robin Hood stories by Pyle 
should be in the hands of the teacher, if possible, 
although it is an expensive book. It is much fuller 
in the special details of the stories needed by the 
teacher, though the smaller book is far better adapted 
as a reading book for schools. 

To illustrate the place which the Robin Hood 
legends hold in English history and literature, the 
following selections, quoted from Tennyson's "The 
Foresters " and one of the old ballads, are given. 
They are taken from " English History told by 
English Poets," pubHshed by The Macmillan Com- 
pany, where the passage from " The Foresters " is 
given at greater length. 



130 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

KING RICHARD IN SHERWOOD FOREST 

Lord Tennyson 
( From " The Foresters " ) 

Robin Hood and Maid Marian, Friar Tuck and 
George-a-Green, Will Scarlet, Midge the Miller's 
Son, Little John, and the rest are legendary char- 
acters loved and sung from the fourteenth century 
to modern times. The charm of these light-hearted 
highwaymen was felt by Shakespeare himself: 
" They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and 
a many merry men with him : and there they live like 
the old Robin Hood of England; they say many 
young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet 
the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world." 
— ("As You Like It," I, i.) Tennyson adopts the 
tradition that the generous outlaws dwelt in Sher- 
wood Forest in Cumberlandshire, and that their 
leader, Robin Hood, was the banished Earl of Hunt- 
ingdon. The plot of the "The Foresters" turns 
upon the sudden return of Richard from his Austrian 
captivity and the consequent collapse of the intrigues 
conducted by his crafty and cruel brother John. 

Robin Hood. Am I worse or better? 

I am outlaw'd. I am none the worse for that 
I held for Richard and I hated John. 
I am a thief, ay, and a king of thieves. 
Ay ! but we rob the robber, wrong the wronger, 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 1 31 

And what we wring from them we give the poor. 

I am none the worse for that, and all the better 

For this free forest-life, for while I sat 

Among my thralls in my baronial hall 

The groining hid the heavens ; but since I breathed, 

A houseless head beneath the sun and stars, 

The soul of the woods hath stricken thro' my blood, 

The love of freedom, the desire of God, 

The hope of larger life hereafter, more 

Tenfold than under roof. 

True, were I taken 
They would prick out my sight. A price is set 
On this poor head ; but I believe there lives 
No man who truly loves and truly rules 
His following, but can keep his followers true. 
I am one with mine. Traitors are rarely bred 
Save under traitor kings. Our vice-king John, 
True king of vice — true play on words — our John, 
By his Norman arrogance and dissoluteness, 
Hath made me king of all the discontent 
Of England up thro' all the forest land 
North to the Tyne : being outlawed in a land 
Where law lies dead, we make ourselves the law. 

King Richard (to Robin). My good friend Robin, Earl of 
Huntingdon, 
For Earl thou art again, hast thou no fetters 
For those of thine own band who would betray thee? 
Robin. I have ; but these were never worn as yet, 
I never found one traitor in my band. 

****** ♦ 

Our forest games are ended, our free life. 
And we must hence to the King's court. I trust 
We shall return to the wood. Meanwhile, farewell 
Old friends, old patriarch oaks. A thousand winters 
Will strip you bare as death, a thousand summers 
Robe you life-green again. You seem, as it were, 
Immortal, and we mortal. How few Junes 



132 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Will heat our pulses quicker ! How few frosts 
Will chill the hearts that beat for Robin Hood! 

Marian. And yet I think these oaks at dawn and even, 
Or in the balmy breathings of the night, 
Will whisper evermore of Robin Hood. 
We leave but happy memories to the forest. 
We dealt in the wild justice of the woods. 
All those poor serfs whom we have served will bless us, 
All those pale mouths which we have fed will praise us — 
All widows we have holpen pray for us, 
Our Lady's blessed shrines throughout the land 
Be all the richer for us. You, good friar, 
You Much, you Scarlet, you dear Little John, 
Your names will cling like ivy to the wood. 
And here perhaps a hundred years away 
Some hunter in day-dreams or half asleep 
Will hear our arrows whizzing overhead. 
And catch the winding of a phantom horn. 

Robin. And surely these old oaks will murmur thee 
Marian along with Robin. I am most happy — 
Art thou not mine ? — and happy that our King 
Is here again, never I trust to roam 
So far again, but dwell among his own. 
Strike up a stave, my masters, all is well. 

HOW ROBIN HOOD RESCUED THE WIDOW's THREE SONS 

Robin Hood and his followers were bandits and 
outlaws, but the people loved them because they 
defied the hateful forest laws and made light of the 
sheriff. The king's officers were responsible for 
the maintenance of order, but in these lawless times 
they often used their power for their own advantage, 
imposing heavy fines and penalties on the poor, and 
extorting bribes from the rich. The following is 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 133 

one of the oldest and rudest of the many Robin Hood 
ballads : — 

There are twelve months in all the year, 

As I hear many say, 
But the merriest month in all the year 

Is the merry month of May. 

Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone, 

With a link a down and a day, 
And there he met a silly ^ old woman, 

Was weeping on the way. 

" What news ? what news, thou silly old woman ? 

What news hast thou for me ? " 
Said she, " There's my three sons in Nottingham town 

To-day condemned to die." 

"O, have they parishes burnt?" he said, 

" Or have they ministers slain ? 
Or have they robbed any virgin? 

Or other men's wives have ta'en ? " 

" They have no parishes burnt, good sir, 

Nor yet have ministers slain, 
Nor have they robbed any virgin. 

Nor other men's wives have ta'en." 

" O, what have they done ? " said Robin Hood, 

" I pray thee tell to me." 
" It's for slaying of the king's fallow-deer, 

Bearing their long bows with thee." 

" Dost thou not mind, old woman," he said, 
" How thou madest me sup and dine ? 

^ simple 



34 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

By the truth of my body," quoth bold Robin Hood, 
" You could not tell it in better time." 

Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone, 

With a link a down and a day, 
And there he met with a silly old palmer, 

Was walking along the highway. 

"What news? what news, thou silly old man? 

What news, I do thee pray? " 
Said he, " Three squires in Nottingham town 

Are condemned to die this day." 

" Come change thy apparel with me, old man, 
Come change thy apparel for mine ; 

Here is forty shillings in good silver. 
Go drink it in beer or wine." 

Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone. 
With a link a down and a down, 

And there he met with the proud sheriff. 
Was walking along the town. 

" O Christ you save, O sheriff ! " he said •, 

" O Christ you save and see ; 
And what will you give to a silly old man 

To-day will your hangman be ? " 

" Some suits, some suits," the sheriff he said, 

" Some suits I'll give to thee ; 
Some suits, some suits, and pence thirteen. 

To-day's a hangman's fee." 

Then Robin he turns him round about, 
And jumps from stock to stone : 

"By the truth of my body," the sheriff he said, 
'* That's well jumpt, thou nimble old man." 



THIRD GRADE STORIES 135 

« I was ne'er a hangman in all my life, 

Nor yet intends to trade ; 
But curst be he," said bold Robin, 

« That first a hangman was made ! 

« Fve a bag for meal, and a bag for malt, 

And a bag for barley and corn ; 
A bag for bread, and a bag for beef. 

And a bag for my little small horn. 

" I have a horn in my pocket, 

I got it from Robin Hood, 
And still when I set it to my mouth, 

For thee it blows little good." 

« O, wind thy horn, thou proud fellow, 

Of thee I have no doubt. 
I wish that thou give such a blast, 

Till both thy eyes fall out." 

The first loud blast that he did blow. 

He blew both loud and shrill ; 
A hundred and fifty of Robin Hood's men 

Came riding over the hill. 

The next loud blast that he did give. 

He blew both loud and amain, 
And quickly sixty of Robin Hood's men 

Came shining over the plain. 

« O, who are these," the sheriff he said, 

« Come tripping over the lea? " 
" They're my attendants," brave Robin did say ; 

" They'll pay a visit to thee." 

They took the gallows from the slack. 

They set it in the glen, 
They hanged the proud sheriff on that, 

Released their own three men. 



136 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 



ROBIN HOOD BOOKS 

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Howard Pyle). Finely 

illustrated, $3.00. Scribner's Sons. 
Some Adventures of Robin Hood (Pyle). Small school edition, 

illustrated ; Scribner's Sons. 
Tennyson's The Foresters. 

The Robin Hood ballads are found in many of the ballad books. 
Ivanhoe contains several scenes from the life of Robin Hood 

(Locksley). 



CHAPTER VI 

Primary Reading through Incidental Exercises 
AND Games 

based ON SCHOOL MOVEMENTS, STUDIES, AND GAMES 

Before entering upon the discussion of the usual 
methods of introducing children to the art of reading 
we will give a treatment of the incidental opportuni- 
ties offered by the other studies, by school move- 
ments and games in primary classes, for introducing 
children to the written and printed forms» 

It is assumed that the more closely the written or 
printed words and sentences are related to the chil- 
dren's activities, or the more dependent these activi- 
ties are made upon a knowledge of the word-forms, 
the quicker and more natural will be their mastery. 
To put it briefly, the teacher abstains from the use of 
oral speech to a considerable extent and substitutes 
the written forms of the words on the blackboard in 
giving directions, in games, and in treating topics 
in literature and science. The following chapter is 
taken wholly from the lessons given by Mrs. Lida B. 
McMurry in the first grade. Many other similar 
lessons were worked out, but these are probably 
sufficient to fully illustrate the plan. 



138 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

The teacher's aim in the beginning reading is to 
lead the child to look to the lesson, either word or 
sentence or paragraph, to find what it has to say to 
him — to present the lesson in such a way that the 
child shall quicken into life in its presence — shall 
reach forward to grasp this much-desired thing. The 
attention of the child is centred on the thought ; he 
grasps the symbols because he must reach, through 
them, the thought. 

Much of the early reading can be taught in a 
purely incidental way — in the general exercises of 
the school and in the literature and nature-study 
recitations. 

READING TAUGHT INCIDENTALLY 

(a) In the General Management of the School. The 
directions which are at first given to children orally, 
e.g,y risey turn^ pass, sitj skip, fly, march, run, walk^ 
pass to the front, pass to the back, are later written 
upon the board. When the children seem to have 
become familiar with the written direction, the 
order in which the directions are given is some- 
times changed, as a test, e.g., the following direc- 
tions are usually given in this order — turn, rise, pass. 
Instead of writing turn first, the teacher writes pass. 
If the children understand, they will rise at once and 
pass without waiting to turn. 

The names of the children, instead of being spoken, 
are often written; in this way the children become 



INCIDENTAL READING 1 39 

familiar with the names of all the children in the 
school. The teacher, writing Clarence upon the board, 
says, " I would Uke this boy to erase the boards 
to-night." The first time it is written the teacher 
speaks the name as she writes it. It may be neces- 
sary to do this several times. The teacher does not 
look at Clarence as she writes his name. If he does 
not recognize his name after it has appeared repeat- 
edly, his eyesight may well be tested. If heedless- 
ness is the cause of the failure, another name is 
written at the board, and Clarence loses the opportu- 
nity to do the service. No drill should be given on 
these names. The repetition incident to the frequent 
calling upon the child is all that is necessary to fix 
the name. 

The names of the songs and of the poems which 
the children are memorizing are written upon the 
board as needed. The teacher says, ** We will sing 
this song this morning." If the children do not 
recognize its title as the teacher points to it, she 
gives it. After a while the children will recognize 
the names of all the songs and the poems which 
are in use in the room. 

The children become familiar with the written 
form of the smaller numbers in this way — the 
number of absent children is reported at each 
session and written on the board. On Friday the 
teacher records upon the board some facts of the 
week, or of the month, which the children learned 



140 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

from their weather charts — viz., the number of 
sunny and the number of cloudy days. The number 
of children in each row is ascertained and written at 
the board that the monitors may know how many 
pairs of scissors, pieces of clay, or pencils to select. 

The poems, after being partially committed to 
memory, are written upon the board ; when the 
pupils falter, reference is made to the line in ques- 
tion as it appears upon the board. 

The teacher sometimes writes her morning greet- 
ing or evening farewell at the board — thus : ** Good 
morning, children," or, " Good-by for to-day." The 
children read silently and respond with, " Good morn- 
ing, Miss Eades," or, " Good night. Miss Farr." 

Often she communicates facts of interest at the 
board. If the pupils are unable to interpret what 
she has written, she reads for them, e.g.^ the teacher 
writes, " We have vacation to-morrow." Quite likely 
some child, unable to read at all, will say, ** We have 
something, but I can't tell what it is." (These same 
words will occur again, when needed to express a 
thought, and it is a waste of energy to drill upon 
them.) When the children have interpreted the 
above sentence at the board, the teacher writes, " Do 
you know why } " The children read the question 
silently and give the answer audibly, and say, ** It is 
Decoration Day." We too often allow children to 
treat a question in their reading as if its end were 
reached in the asking. To lead the children to form 



INCIDENTAL READING I4I 

a habit of answering questions asked in writing or in 
print, such questions as the following are, from time 
to time, written at the board : " Did you see the rain- 
bow last night ? " " What color was it ? " " Did you 
see any birds on Saturday?" "What ones?" "Have 
you been to the woods ? " " What did you find there ? " 

(b) ht Connection with the Literature. The name 
of the story which the teacher is about to tell is 
placed upon the board. At the first writing the 
teacher tells the pupils what it is, if necessary, e.g.^ 
the teacher says, "We shall have a story about 'The 
Three Bears,' " pointing to the title upon the board. 
The next day she says, " I would like you to tell me 
all you can about this story " — writing its name upon 
the board. 

In the final reproduction of the story the teacher 
assigns topics, e.g. : Chauncey may tell me about 
this (writing at the board): Silver-Hair going to 
the woods. Eva may tell about this: Silver-Hair 
going into the kitchen. Jennie may tell about this : 
Silver-Hair going into the sitting room. Willie may 
tell about this : Silver-Hair going upstairs. Should 
the child go beyond the limited topic, the teacher 
points to the board and asks about what he was to 

tea 

At the close of each story that can be dramatized, 
the teacher assigns at the board the part which each 
is to take, thus : After the story of " The Old Woman 
and the Pig" is learned, the teacher writes in a col- 



142 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

umn each child's name opposite the animal or thing 
which he is to represent, in this way. 

Agnes — the old woman. 

Glenn — the pig. 

Sadie — the dog, etc. 

(c) In Connection with the Nature Study. In the 
spring the children are looking for the return of the 
birds, the first spring blossoms, and the opening of 
the tree buds. The teacher often makes her own dis- 
coveries known through writing, upon the board, e.g.^ 
" I saw a robin this morning," or ** I found a blue 
violet yesterday," or *'I saw some elm blossoms last 
night." 

The class, by the aid of the teacher, make a bird, 
a flower, and a tree-bud calendar, on which are re- 
corded the name and date of the first seen of each. 
These names are put on the calendars in the presence 
of the children, and they frequently "name their 
treasures o'er." 

The mode of travelling is written beside the name 
of each familiar bird as the children make the dis- 
coveries, thus : — 

Robin •< runs. Crow ■{ ^. 

(flies. ^'"^^- 

Questions arise during the recitation which the 
children will answer later from observation. That 
the children may not forget them they are placed 
high up on the board where they can be preserved. 



INCIDENTAL READING I43 

Frequent reference is made to them to see if the 
pupils are prepared to answer them. When a ques- 
tion is answered it is erased, making room for another. 

THE READING RECITATION 

For the early reading, Games, Literature, and 
Nature Study may form the basis. 

(I) Games as a Basis for the Reading. The child 
enters school from a life of play. It is our purpose, 
so far as possible, to make use of this natural bent of 
the child to insure interest in his reading, as well as 
to give him the free exercise, which he needs, of his 
muscles. It may be urged as an argument against the 
use of the games, that they are too noisy and attract 
the attention of the children who are busy at their 
seats. Often it would be a good thing for these chil- 
dren to watch the younger ones at their games. It 
would rest them and put them into closer sympathy 
with the little ones. In a short time they will not 
care so much to watch them. The little children 
should be thoughtful of the older ones and move about 
as quietly as is possible. 

The following are some of the games which we have 
used in our primary school. They are given in the 
way of suggestion only. They are played at first by 
following spoken directions. When the children are 
perfectly familiar with the oral direction, the written 
direction is gradually substituted. The children do 
not stay long enough on one game to become tired of 



144 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

it. Two or three or even more are played at a single 
recitation. It is not the plan to drill the pupils upon 
the written directions, but by frequent repetitions to 
familiarize them with them. The games are most 
suitable for the very earliest reading lessons. The 
plan for teaching one of them, the first one given 
here, will be written out quite fully. The others will 
be given with less detail. 

THE RING GAME 

Material. — Six celluloid rings, red, white, blue, yel- 
low, green, and black. Surcingle rings can be painted 
the colors desired. 

Directions. — Take the red ring, Jennie. 
Take the blue ring, Eva. 
Take the yellow ring, Wallace. 
Take the green ring, Chauncey. 
Take the black ring, Gregory. 
Take the white ring, Lloyd. 

When the children are ready to hide the rings this 
direction is given to the remainder of the class : — 

Close your eyes. 

This to the pupils who hold the rings : — 

Hide the rings. 

When the children have all the rings hid they an- 
nounce it by lightly clapping their hands, upon which 



INCIDENTAL READING I45 

the children open their eyes. Directions are then 

given to those wlio did not hide rings, for finding the 

rings, e.^. : — 

Find the red ring. 

Find the blue ring, etc. 

No notice is taken of any ring but the one called 
for. A limited time is given for the finding of each. 
At the close of that time, if the ring is not discovered, 
the one who hid it gets it. When the written direc- 
tions are first used the whole sentence need not be 
put upon the board, e.^:, the teacher need write only — 
t/ie red ring. She says to the child, "find this " — 
pointing to the board ; or red, alone, may be written, 
in which case the teacher points to the word, saying, 
"You may find this ring.'' There is considerable 
rivalry to see who will find the most rings. 

When the children seem to know the written di- 
rections perfectly, a test is made of their ability, 
actually, to read them ; thus, instead of writing, 
"Take the red ring," the teacher writes, ''Find the 
red ring." She writes " Hide the rings," before she 
writes, " Close your eyes." If the children recog- 
nize what is written they will set the teacher right. 

BALL AND CORD 

Material. — Small, soft rubber balls with short rub- 
ber cords attached. The cords have a loop for the 
finger. 



146 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Ball in right hand. 

Toss up. 

Hold. 

Toss down. 

Hold. 

Toss to the right. 

Hold. 
Toss to the left. 

Hold. 

Ball in left hand. 

Toss up, etc. 

In this and succeeding games it is left to the dis- 
cretion of the teacher as to when the written direc- 
tions shall be introduced. 

BALL GAME 

Material. — A soft rubber ball. 

Form a circle. 
Take the ball, Roy. 
Toss the ball. 
Roll the ball. 
Bounce the ball. 
Throw the ball. 
Give the ball to Sadie. 

In this game one of the children takes the ball to 
the circle. Each, as the ball is tossed to him, tosses 
it to another. At the direction of the teacher the 
game of tossing the ball is changed to one of rolling 



INCIDENTAL READING 147 

the ball, the pupils squatting on the floor; this in 
turn is changed later as the directions indicate. 
Care must be taken that all children are treated 
alike in this game. The children themselves will 
look out for this if properly directed at the outset 
of the game. 

HUNTING THE VIOLET 

Material. — ViolQis scattered about the room. 
Find a blue violet, Glenn. 
Find a violet bud, Edith. 
Find a yellow violet, Lloyd. 
Find a violet leaf, Sadie. 
Find a white violet, Jennie. 
Find a purple violet, Rudolph. 
Sing to the violets. 

Children sing softly : — 

" Oh, violets, pretty violets, 
I pray you tell to me 
Why are you the first flowers 
That bloom upon the lea?" etc 

A TREE GAME — (spring OR FALL) 

MateriaL — Leaves of the different trees with which 
the children are familiar. 

Glenn may be a maple tree. 

Choose your leaf. 
Wallace may be an elm tree. 
Choose your leaf. 



148 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Chauncey may be a birch tree. 
Choose your leaf, etc. 
Make a little forest. 
Toss in the wind. 

(The leaves are pinned upon the children as each 
chooses his leaf, and they dance lightly about as if 
tossed by the wind.) 

CARING FOR THE ANIMALS 

Material. — Wooden or paper animals. A portion 
of the table is marked off by a chalk line for the 
farmyard. 

Drive in a pig, Willie. 

Lead in a horse, Gregory. 

Drive in a sheep, Sadie. 

Lead in a cow, Roy, etc. 

They are driven in at night, then driven out in the 
morning. Sometimes they are hurried in because of 
the approach of a storm. 

DOLL PLAY — (general) 

Material. — Penny dolls or larger ones. 

Take a doll. 

Rock the baby. 

Pat the baby. 

Sing the baby to sleep. 

Put the baby to bed. 



INCIDENTAL READING 149 

Take up the baby. 
Wash its face. 
Comb its hair. 
Feed it bread and milk. 
Take it for a walk. 

At the direction, " Sing the baby to sleep," the 
children sing very softly : — 

" Rock-a-bye Baby," — or some other lullaby. 

The bed is the chair on which the child is sitting. 
All stand and turn about together to put the 
babies to bed. They go through the movements 
only of washing the face and hands and combing 
the hair, and of feeding bread and milk. They per- 
form these acts in unison. 

THE RAINBOW FAIRIES — (sPRING) 

Material — \^2Sg^ bows of tissue paper with 
streamers, of the various colors mentioned. 

Eva may be a yellow fairy. 
Roy may be a blue fairy. 
Edith may be a green fairy. 
Louise may be a red fairy. 
Lloyd may be an orange fairy. 
Sadie may be a violet fairy. 
The others may be trees. 
Join hands, fairies. 
Dance about the trees. 



150 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

As the first direction is given Eva steps to the 
table and takes a yellow bow which is pinned to 
her left shoulder : the others follow as called upon. 

THE LEAVES 

Material. — A leaf of one of several colors pinned 
on each child. The wind calls : — 

Come yellow leaf. 
Come red leaf. 
Come green leaves, etc. 
Dance in the wind. 

At the last direction the children fly over a 
small area, hither and thither ; some one way, some 
another, passing and repassing one another, simulat- 
ing the leaves in a storm. 

A FLOCK OF BIRDS 

All the children are little birds. 
Fly to the fields. 
Pick up seeds. 
Take a drink. 
Bathe in the creek. 
Preen your feathers. 
Fly home. 
Perch on a twig. 

They sing: — ^^^' 

" We are little birdies, 

Happy we, happy we. 
We are little birdies 
Singing in a tree." 



INCIDENTAL READING ^S^ 

HUNTING BIRDS 

Matefial. — Colored pictures of birds common to 
the locality in which the game is used. 

Find a robin, Rudolph. 

Find a bluebird, Gregory, etc. 

The child indicated finds the picture of the bird 
called for and places it on the blackboard ledge 
which serves as a picture gallery. 

HUNTING LEAVES 

is a game similar to the above. 

MOVEMENT GAME 

Frederick may be a pony. 
Louise may be a kitty, etc. 

(Of the other children — one may be a boy ; another, 
a bird; another, a horse; another, a fish; another, a 

girl, etc.) 

Trot, pony. 

Run, dog. 

Skip, boy, etc. 

They perform singly, and also in a body. 

MAKING GARDEN 

MaUrml. — Tr^iys or box-covers of sand, and a toy 
set of garden tools for each pupil. 



152 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Take the spade. 

Spade the earth. 

Take the hoe. 

Hoe the ground. 

Take the rake. 

Smooth the ground. 

Make holes (or rows). 

Plant corn (or sow the seed). 

Cover the seed. 

Water the garden. 

THE farmer's pets 

For this game the children are all seated in chairs 
except one for whom no chair is provided. Each 
child seated takes the name of some animal on the 
farm, e.g., a dog, cat, horse, chicken, duck, or cow. 
The one standing is the farm-hand and says, e.g., 
** My master wants his dog." The dog must jump up 
and turn around. If he fails to do so, he steps to one 
side taking his chair with him. If when he is again 
called upon he answers correctly, he resumes his seat 
in the circle. Occasionally the farm-hand says, ** My 
master wants all of his pets." When all rise and 
change seats quietly. The farm-hand tries to get a 
seat, leaving another child to be the farm-hand. In 
changing seats they change names as a single name 
belongs to each chair. 

(II) Literature as a Basis for the Reading. The 
stories in the form indicated below are given after 



INCIDENTAL READING 1 53 

the children have become thoroughly familiar with 
them through oral presentation, after, too, the chil- 
dren have gained some facility in reading, through 
the use of the games, and the directions, etc., used in 
the general management of the school. Before the 
board work is presented the children dramatize 
the story which they are to read. They look to 
the board to find out what to say that they may im- 
personate the character in the story. Each mimics 
in tone and action the one whose part he takes. As 
no two mimic in the same way there is no lack of 
variety and interest. If the children are thoughtful 
they will know every time into whose mouth to put 
each sentence. They need to be alert, however. The 
names of the speakers, given in the margin, are for 
the benefit of the readers of this article. They are 
not put on the board. The children do not need 
them. 

THE OLD WOMAN AND THE PIG 
I 

The old woman. I was sweeping my house. 
I found this dime. 
What shall I buy ? 
I know ; I will buy a pig. 
Where is my sunbonnet } 
Where is my cane } 
Here I go. 
Tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! 



154 



SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 



II. 

Old woman. Tap, tap, tap ! 
The farmer. Come in. 

Good morning, old woman. 
Old woman. Good morning, sir. 
I want to buy a pig. 
Farmer. All right ; I have some. 
Will you look at them } 
Here they are. 
Old woman. I like this one. 
I will take it. 
Good morning. 
Farmer, Good morning. 

Ill 
Old woman. Go on, pig. 

That fence is low, 
You can jump over. 
Pig. Grunt ! grunt ! 
Old woman. What shall I do } 
I must have help. 
I will go back. 

IV 

Old woman. Dog, dog, bite pig. 

Dog. No, no. {Shaking his head^ 



Old woman. Stick, stick, whip dog. 

Stick. No, no. {Shaking head as before?) 



INCIDENTAL READING I 55 

vi-xii. Similar to two above, 

XIII 

Old woman. Cat, cat, kill rat. 

Cat. I will if you will give me some milk. 
Old woman. I will go to the cow. 

XIV 

Old woman. Cow, cow, give me some milk. 

Cow. I will if you will give me some hay. 
Old woman. All right. 

Tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! 
Here is the hay, cow. 
Cow. Chew, chew, chew, chew. 

Now you may have some milk. 
Old woman. Thank you, cow. 

XV 

Old woman. Come, kitty, kitty, kitty. 

Here is some milk for you. 
Cat. Lap, lap, lap, lap. 
Old woman. Now catch the rat. 

Cat. Patter, patter, patter. {Given softly 
— it is the cat running after the 
rat.) 

THE THREE BEARS 

I 

The papa hear. That soup is hot. 
It must cool. 
We will take a walk. 



156 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

II 

Silver-Hair. Tap ! tap ! tap ! 

No one at home. 

I will go in. 

What is that on the table ? 

It is three bowls of soup. 

I am hungry. 
{Tasting of the soup in the big bowl.) 

That is too hot. 
{Tasting of soup in middle-sized bowl.) 

That is too cold. 
(Tasting of soup in little bowl.) 

That is just right. 

It is good. 

I will eat a little. 

Ill 
I am tired. 

Here are three chairs. 
That is too high. 
That is too wide. 
This is just right. 
I will rest here. 
Oh, it broke ! 

IV 

I am sleepy. 
I will go upstairs. 
Here are three beds. 
That is too hard. 



INCIDENTAL READING 157 

That is too soft. 
This is just right. 
I will sleep here. 

V 

Papa bear, somebody has been tasting my soup. 
Mamma bear. Somebody has been tasting my soup. 
Baby bear. Somebody has been tasting my soup. 
It is all gone. 

VI 

Papa bear, somebody has been sitting in my 
chair. 
Mamma bear. Somebody has been sitting in my chair. 
Baby bear. Somebody has been sitting in my chair. 
It is all broken. 

VII 

Papa bear, somebody has been lying on my bed. 
Mamma bear. Somebody has been lying on my bed. 
Baby bear. Somebody has been lying on my bed. 
Why, here she is ! 
Silver-Hair. Oh, my ! 

I will jump. 
Now I will run. 

the fir tree 
I 
I am a little fir tree. 
I want to be tall. 
I hate rabbits. 
They jump over me. 



158 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

II 

I am three years old. 

The rabbit cannot jump over me now. 

It runs around me. 

I wish I were taller. 

I hate to be so little. 

Ill 
Now I am six years old. 
Here come the woodchoppers. 
They will take me away. 
Here I go. 
Thump! thump! thump! 

IV 

What a fine house. 

How beautiful this moss is. 

What are these people going to give me ? 

I am so happy ! 

V 

Here are the children. 

How they like me ! 

See them dance about me. 

Everybody looks at me. 

Do not take away my beautiful dress. 

Do not put out the lights. 

VI 

Here come the servants. 

They will give me my beautiful dress. 



INCIDENTAL READING 1 59 

Oh, oh, oh ! 

Don't put me up there. 

It is dark. 

I want to be planted. 

VII 

I wish I were at home. 

I want to see the rabbit. 

It may jump over me. 

I will not care. 

I want to see the other trees. 

The rats come. I do not like rats. 

VIII 

Out again I 

I like the air. 

Now I shall be planted. 

I am glad to see the flowers. 

I am glad to hear the birds. 

Now I shall live. 

IX 

That boy called me ugly. 
He took my beautiful star. 
I wish I were in the woods. 
I shall never be happy again. 
Pop I pop I pop I pop I 

THE STREET MUSICIANS 
I 

The donkey, I am very old. 
I am very weak. 



l60 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

I can work no more. 

My master will not keep me. 

I will run away. 

I will go to the city. 

I can make music. 

I will join a band. 

Trot! trot! trot! 

II 

What is that in the road ? 
It is an old dog. 
What is the matter ? 
Dog. I am very old. 
I am very weak. 
I cannot hunt. 

My master will not keep me. 
How can I live ? 
Donkey. Come with me. 

You can play the bass drum. 
Join a band. 
Dog. Good ! good ! good ! 
I will go. 
Dog a7id donkey. Trot! trot! trot! 

Ill 

Donkey. What is that in the road ? 
It is an old cat. 

What is the matter, old whiskers } 
Cat. I am very old. 
I am very weak. 



INCIDENTAL READING 



i6i 



I cannot catch mice. 
My mistress will not keep me. 
How can I live ? 
Donkey. Come with us. 
You can sing. 
Join a band. 
Cat. Good ! good ! good ! 
I will go. 
All three. Trot! trot! trot! 



IV 



Donkey. 


What is that on the gate ? 




It is a rooster. 




What is the matter ? 


Rooster. 


The cook will kill me. 


Donkey. 


Come with us. 




You can sing. 




Join a band. 


Rooster. 


Good 1 good ! good ! 




I will go. 


Allfour. 


Trot! trot! trot! 



THE UNHAPPY PINE TREE 
I 

I am a little pine tree. 

I do not like to be a pine tree. 

My leaves are needles. 

Needles are not pretty. 

I wish I had gold leaves. 



l62 



SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 



II 

In the morning. Why do the trees look at me? 
What has happened ? 
Gold leaves ! Gold leaves ! 
Just what I wanted ! 
Good! good! good! 

Ill 
To the robber. Do not take my leaves. 
I want them. 
They are beautiful. 
Give them back. 
No leaves ! No leaves ! 
I wish I had glass leaves. 



In the morning. 



IV 

Oh, how beautiful I 

Glass leaves ! Glass leaves 1 

No robber will take them. 

I can keep them. 

I am so happy I 



Cloud, do not come. 

Wind, do not blow. 

Keep still, keep still. 

A leaf is broken. 

Another ! Another I 

All gone ! All gone ! 

No beautiful leaves. 

I wish I had bright green leaves. 



INCIDENTAL READING 163 

VI 

In the morning. Oh, my pretty green leaves I 
No one will steal them. 
Nothing will break them. 
I shall not need to keep still. 
I will dance. 
Dance! dance I dance! 

VII 

Goat, do not come here. 

These are my leaves. 

I want them. 

They are pretty. 

Oh, oh, oh ! 

All my pretty leaves are gone. 

What shall I do ? 

I wish I had my needles. 

VIII 

Oh, mother, mother, see I 

I have my old leaves. 

I like them. 

They are best of all. 

No one will steal them. 

Nothing will break them. 

Nothing will eat them. 

I can keep them. 

My dear old leaves ! 
(Ill) Nature Study as a Basis for the Reading. 
The subjects in which the pupils are most interested 
are made the basis for the reading lessons. 



164 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Sometimes there is a guessing game like the fol- 
lowing : The teacher, holding a flower in her closed 
hand, writes : — 

Guess what I have. 
It is a flower. 
It is white. 

// has a yellow centre. 
(The children answer — a daisy.) Or — 
Guess what I have. 
It is a leaf. 
It is yellow. 
It is long. 
It is narrow. 
(The children answer — the willow.) 
After the pupils have made a careful study of a 
few birds or flowers, the reading lesson describes 
one of these, and the pupils are expected to name 
it from the description. If a child gives the wrong 
name, one of those who know better points out the 
line or lines barring out this object, and reads to the 
one making the mistake as proof of his error. 
I live in the woods. 
I am not a bird. 
I am not a flower. 
I am not a tree. 
I run up trees. 
I eat nuts. 
I have a bushy tail. 
What is my name ? {Sqtcirrel.) 



INCIDENTAL READING 165 

I am a little bird. 

My back is brown. 

My breast is white. 

My bill is curved. 

I go up a tree trunk. 

I fly to another tree. 

I like insects. 

What is my name ? {The brown creeper^ 

This is a big bird. 

It is blue. 

It has black bands on its tail and wings. 

It has a crest. 

Its bill is black. 

It scolds. 

What is its name } ( The blue jay ^ 

The children sometimes play a game like the fol- 
lowing : All but one personify red-headed wood- 
peckers. The one questions from the board. If a 
red-headed woodpecker fails to answer the question 
put to him, he takes the place of the interlocutor. 
It is an honor to be able to answer all the questions 

put: — 

What color is your head ? 

What color is your throat ? 

What color is your breast t 

What colors on your wings } 

What color is your bill } 

What do you do ? 

Where do you make your nest ? 



1 66 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

To a set of questions like the following, the chil- 
dren give the answers, after reading the questions 
silently : — 

What bird did you first see this spring ? 

What have you seen a robin do ? 

What flower did you see first ? 

What yellow flowers have you seen this spring ? 

What white flowers ? 

What blue flowers ? 

What bird builds a nest in a tree trunk ? 

What bird builds a nest on the ground ? 

THE BABY ROBIN 

I saw two robins on the ground. 

One was a mamma robin. 

The other was a baby robin. 

The baby robin was as big as its mother. 

Its breast was spotted. 

Its mother gave it an earthworm. 

At first it dropped it, but its mother picked it up 
and gave it to her baby again. 

This time it got a better hold. By several gulps 
it swallowed the worm. 

The mother looked proud of her baby. (This is 
the teacher's experience which she tells the children 
from the board. Sometimes she writes the observa- 
tions which one of the children have made.) 

As no two teachers will have the same material 



INCIDENTAL READING I67 

for Nature Study, the reading material will not be 
multiplied here. 

Gradually, as the pupils can stand it, the sentences 
are lengthened a little as necessary, and massed 
into paragraphs. 

The use of the " Mother Goose Rhymes" as a means 
of enlivening the first year reading lessons is also 
treated as follows by Mrs. Lida McMurry. (Taken 
from School and Home Education for October, 1902.) 

Many of the children on entering school are well 
versed in Nursery Rhymes. They enjoy repeating 
them. Other children may not know them so well, 
but soon learn them from their classmates. Teachers 
and pupils may have a happy time together with 
Mother Goose, and at the same time the pupils are 
learning to read without realizing that what they are 
doing is something that they are not accustomed to. 

I will suggest a few ways in which these rhymes 
may be made the basis for reading lessons : — 

Take this rhyme — 

I. Dance, Thumbkin, dance, 

Dance, ye merrymen, every one ; 
For Thumbkin he can dance alone, 
Thumbkin he can dance alone. 

The second, third, fourth, and fifth stanzas are like 
the first, only Foreman, Longman, Ringman, and 
Littleman are in turn substituted for Thumbkin. 

The children first learn to act out each stanza as 



1 68 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

they recite it together. The thumb is held up and 
moved about as if dancing, as the first Une is given. 
All the fingers dance as the second line is recited. 
The thumb dances alone as the third and fourth lines 
are repeated. 

The teacher then repeats the stanza alone, and the 
children's fingers accompany her. 

Later, when the children have learned to act out 
the story well, as the teacher repeats it, the teacher 
writes the first line at the board, and, pointing to it, 
asks the children to do what the board directs. They 
cannot tell what it is, so the teacher says, " The 
board is talking to Thumbkiriy' writing the name on 
the board as she says it. *'What do you think it 
wants Thumbkin to do ? " pointing to Dance in the 
line on the board. The next line is written on the 
board. The children quite likely will guess rightly 
what it says, because of its setting. If not, the 
teacher will help them as at first. In the same way 
they connect the third and fourth lines with the oral 
expression of the same, and act them out accordingly. 
That the children respond readily to the directions as 
written is no proof, at first, that they know even most 
of the words in the lines. The teacher's test is a part 
of the play. To-day, instead of writing the first line, 
she writes the second. Many get caught. They will 
be more alert another time. As they can never tell 
which line will appear first, they learn to discriminate 
by giving closer attention to the form of the words. 



INCIDENTAL READING 1 69 

Sometimes the teacher writes the six names — 
Thumbkin, Foreman, etc., and Merry men, on the 
board. She points to the name or names of the one, 
or ones, that should dance. The children do not like 
to make mistakes in responding with the fingers. 

Sometimes the teacher points to a name on the 
board, as Foreman, and writes "dance alone," or 
"dance every one." The alert children see that the 
latter does not apply. 

The words are not drilled upon. The game, with 
variations sometimes, is played quite frequently, but 
never so long at a time that the children weary 
of it. Three or four plays or games are given at 
a single recitation. The interests of the children 
are studied, and rhymes which they do not enjoy 
as reading material are dropped, and others sub- 
stituted. The rhymes should often be repeated, 
just as they occur in " Mother Goose," that the 
children may not forget them. 

2. Eye winker. 

Tom tinker. 
Mouth eater. 
Chin chopper. 
Chin chopper. 

The children point to the parts of the face as they 
are named. They first learn to give the rhyme with 
its accompanying motion orally, then they respond to 
it as written on the board (Tom tinker is the other 



I/O SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

eye). When they do this readily the directions are 
written out of their order. This tests the children's 
abiHty to distinguish one form from another. No 
child likes to give the wrong motion in response to a 
direction, e.g., point to his mouth when Eye winker 
is called for. 

3. The children, we will suppose, know a number 
of rhymes, as, e.g., 

A diller, a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar. 
A little boy went into a barn. 
Baa, baa, black sheep. 
Rain, rain, go away, etc. 

The teacher writes the first line of one of these 
rhymes on the board and asks a child to give the 
rhyme. He cannot at first. Later he will learn to 
recognize it ; so with all the rhymes he knows. When 
he can give any rhyme called for in response to the 
first line as written at the board, another line (not 
the first) is written, and the child asked to give the 
rhyme of which it is a part. 

4. Is John Smith within ? 
Yes, that he is. 

Can he set a shoe ? 

Ay, marry, two. 

Here a nail and there a nail, 

Tick, tack, too. 

After the children have learned the above rhyme, 
acting it out, by imitating the voices of the two 



INCIDENTAL READING I/^ 

speakers, and by driving the nails, the two ques- 
tions are asked at the board, and the children 
respond orally. Sometimes the second question, 
shghtly altered, is asked first, e.g., "Can John 
Smith set a shoe ? " Sometimes " Who is within ? '* 
appears on the board. 

^, Old Mother Hubbard. 

There are many stanzas to this poem, a few of 
which the teacher will wish to omit, as those refer- 
ring to the visits to the ale-house and the tavern. 
The pupils become perfectly famiUar with the jingle, 
so they can with ease give it orally, then the teacher 
writes the first line of a stanza at the board and point- 
ing to it asks a pupil to give the remainder of the 
stanza. The mistake is ludicrous if the wrong lines 
follow the first, and the pupils wish to avoid such 
a mistake. 

6. There were two birds sat on a stone, 
Fa, la, la, la, lal, de. 
One flew away and then there was one, 

Fa, la, la, la, lal, de. 
The other flew after and then there was none, 

Fa, la, la, la, lal, de. 
And so the poor stone was left all alone. 
Fa, la, la, la, lal, de. 
The children act out this. rhyme at first as they say 
it, later, silently, as they see what is called for at the 
board. 



1/2 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Any number may be substituted for two in the 
first line, but when they come to the third Hne the 
number substituted for one should be such that only 
one will remain, e.g.^ There were eigJit birds sat on 
a stone. Seven flew away, etc. The children are 
sometimes caught by the wrong number being told 
to fly. The children should not fly until they are 
sure that it is all right. 

7, What are your eyes for ? 

What are your ears for ? 
What is your nose for ? 
What is your tongue for ? 
What is your mouth for ? 
What is your hand for ?, 
What are your fingers for } 
What are your teeth for ? 
What is your brain for ? 
What is your heart for ? 

These questions are read silently by the children, 
then answered orally in complete sentences, one child 
only answering at one time. The answers are so 
absurd when wrong that each child is careful to 
know what is asked. 

These are only a few of the ways in which " Mother 
Goose" may be used as reading material. Each 
teacher will think out for herself ways in which these 
rhymes may be profitably and happily employed. 

Mrs. Lida McMurry. 



CHAPTER VII 
Method in Primary Reading 

The problem of primary reading is one of the most 
complex and difficult in the whole range of school 
instruction. A large proportion of the finest skill 
and sympathy of teachers has been expended in 
efforts to find the appropriate and natural method of 
teaching children to read. All sorts of methods and 
devices have been employed, from the most formal 
and mechanical to the most spirited and realistic. 

The first requisite to good reading is something 
worth reading, something valuable and interesting to 
the children, and adapted to their minds. We must 
take it for granted in this discussion that the best 
literature and the best stories have been selected, and 
what the teacher has to do is, first, to appreciate 
these masterpieces for herself, and second, to bring 
the children in the reading lessons to appreciate 
and enjoy them. In the primary grades we are not 
so richly supplied with available materials from good 
literature as in intermediate and grammar grades. 
This is due not to difficulty in thought, but to the 
unfamiliar written and printed forms. The great 
problem in primary reading is to master these strange 
forms as quickly as possible, and find entrance to the 

173 



1/4 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Story-land of books. For several years, however, pri- 
mary teachers have been selecting and adapting 
the best stories, and some of the leading publishers 
have brought out in choice school-book form books 
which are well adapted to the reading of primary 
grades. 

We should like to assume one other advantage. 
If the children have been treated orally to '' Robinson 
Crusoe " in the second grade, they will appreciate and 
read the story much better in the third grade. If 
some of Grimm's stories are told in first grade, they 
can be read with ease in the second grade. The 
teacher's oral presentation of the stories is the right 
way to bring them close to the life and interest of 
children. In the first grade, as shown in the chapter 
on oral lessons, it is the only way, because the chil- 
dren cannot yet read. But even if they could read, the 
oral treatment is much better. The oral presentation 
is more Hvely, natural, and reaHstic. The teacher 
can adapt the story and the language to the im- 
mediate needs of the class as no author can. She 
can question, or suggest lines of thought, or call up 
ideas from the children's experience. The oral man- 
ner is the true way to let the children delve into the 
rich culture-content of stories and to awaken a taste 
for their beauty and truth. We could well wish that 
before children read mythical stories in fourth grade, 
they had been stirred up to enjoy them by oral narra- 
tion and discussion in the preceding year. In the 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1/5 

same way, if the reading bears on interesting science 
topics previously studied, it will be a distinct advan- 
tage to the reading lesson. Children like to read 
about things that have previously excited their inter- 
est, whether in story or science. The difficulties of 
formal reading will also be partly overcome by famili- 
arity with the harder names and words. Our con- 
clusion is that reading lessons, alone, cannot provide 
all the conditions favorable to good reading. Some 
of these can be well supplied by other studies or by 
preliminary lessons which pave the way for the read- 
ing proper. This matter has been so fully discussed 
in the earlier chapters on oral work that it requires 
no further treatment here. 

FOLK-LORE STORIES AS READING EXERCISES FOR 
FIRST GRADE 

Let it be supposed that a class of first-grade chil- 
dren has learned to tell a certain story orally. It has 
interested them and stirred up their thought. 

Let them next learn to read the same story in 
a very simple form. This will lead to a series of 
elementary reading lessons in connection with the 
story, and the aim should be strictly that of master- 
ing the early difficulties of reading. The teacher 
recalls the story, and asks for a statement from its 
beginning. If the sentence furnished by the child is 
simple and suitable, the teacher writes it on the black- 
board in plain large script. Each child reads it 



1/6 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

through and points out the words. Let there be a 
lively drill upon the sentence till the picture of each 
word becomes clear and distinct. During the first 
lesson, two or three short sentences can be handled 
with success. As new words are learned, they should 
be mixed up on the board with those learned before, 
and a quick and varied drill on the words in sentences 
or in columns be employed to establish the forms in 
memory .1 Speed, variety in device, and watchfulness 
to keep all busy and attentive are necessary to secure 
good results. 

After a few lessons one or two of the simpler 
words may be taken for phonetic analysis. The 
simple sounds are associated with the letters that 
represent them. These familiar letters are later met 
and identified in new words, and, as soon as a 
number of sounds with their symbols have been 
learned, new words can be constructed and pro- 
nounced from these known elements. 

The self-activity of the children in recognizing the 
elementary sounds, already met, in new words as fast 
as they come up, is one of the chief merits of this 
early study of words. They thus early learn the 
power of self-help and of confident reUance upon 
themselves in acquiring and using knowledge. The 
chief difficulty is in telling which sound to use, as a 
letter often has several sounds (as ^, ^, s, Cy etc.). But 

^ First-class primary teachers claim that drills are unnecessary if the 
teacher is skilful in recombining the old words in new sentences. 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 7/ 

the children are capable of testing the known sounds 
of a letter upon a new word, and in most cases, of 
deciding which to use. The thoughtless habit of 
pronouncing every new word for a child, without 
effort on his part, checks and spoils his interest and 
self -activity. It does not seem necessary to use an 
extensive system of diacritical markings to guide him 
in these efforts to discriminate sounds. It is better 
to use the marks as Uttle as possible and learn to 
interpret words as they usually appear in print. 
Experience has shown decisively that a lively and 
vigorous self-activity is manifested by such early 
efforts in learning to read. It is one of the most 
encouraging signs in education to see little children 
in their first efforts to master the formal art of read- 
ing, showing this spirited self-reliant energy. 

In the same way, they recognize old words in 
sentences and new or changed combinations of old 
forms, and begin to read new sentences which com- 
bine old words in new relations. 

In short, the sentence, word, and phonic methods 
are all used in fitting alternation, while originality and 
variety of device are necessary in the best exercise of 
teaching power. 

The processes of learning to read by such board- 
script work are partly analytic and partly synthetic. 
Children begin with sentences, analyze them into 
words, and some of the words into their simple 
sounds. But when these sounds begin to grow 



1/8 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

familiar, they are identified again in other words, 
thus combining them into new forms. In the same 
way, words once learned by the analytic study of 
sentences are recognized again in new sentences, and 
thus interpreted in new relations. 

The short sentences, derived from a familiar story, 
when ranged together supply a brief, simple outline 
of the story. If now this series of sentences be 
written on the board or printed on slips of paper, 
the whole story may be reviewed by the class from 
day to day till the word and sentence forms are well 
mastered. For making these printed sHps, some 
teachers use a small printing-press, or a typewriter. 
Eventually several stories may be collected and 
sewed together, so as to form a little reading-book 
which is the result of the constructive work of 
teacher and pupils. 

The reading lessons just described are entirely 
separate from the oral treatment and reproduction of 
the stories; yet the thought and interest awakened 
in the oral work are helpful in keeping up a lively 
effort in the reading class. The thought material in 
a good story is itself a mental stimulus, and produces 
a wakefulness which is favorable to imprinting the 
forms as well as the content of thought. Expression, 
also, that is, natural and vivid rendering of the 
thought, is always aimed at in reading, and springs 
spontaneously from interesting thought studies. 

Many teachers use the materials furnished by oral 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 79 

lessons in natural science as a similar introduction to 
reading in first grade. The science lessons furnish 
good thought matter for simple sentences, and there 
is good reason why, in learning to read, children 
should use sentences drawn both from literature and 
from natural science. 

READING IN THE SECOND GRADE 

The oral lessons in good stories, and the later 
board-use of these materials in learning the elements 
of formal reading, are an excellent preparation for 
the fuller and more extended reading of similar 
matter in the second and third grades. 

When the oral work of the first grade has thus 
kindled the fancy of a child upon these charming 
pictures, and the later board-work has acquainted 
him with letter and word symbols which express such 
thought, the reading of the same and other stories of 
like character (a year later) will follow as an easy 
and natural sequence. As a preliminary to all good 
reading exercises, there should be rich and fruitful 
thought adapted to the age of children. The realm 
of classic folk-lore contains abundant thought mate- 
rial peculiar in its fitness to awaken the interest and 
fancy of children in the first two grades. To bring 
these choice stories close to the hearts of children 
should be the aim of much of the work in both these 
grades. Such an aim, skilfully carried out, not only 
conduces to the joy of children in first grade, but 



l80 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

infuses the reading lessons of second grade with 
thought and culture of the best quality. 

Interest and vigor of thought are certain to help 
right expression and reading. Reading, like every 
other study, should be based upon realities. When 
there is real thought and feeling in the children, a 
correct expression of them is more easily secured 
than by formal demands or by intimidation. 

The stories to be read in second or third grade 
may be fuller and longer than the brief outline sen- 
tences used for board-work in the first grade. 
Besides, these tales, being classic and of permanent 
value, do not lose their charm by repetition. 

METHOD 

By oral reading, we mean the giving of the 
thought obtained from a printed page to others 
through the medium of the voice. 

There is first the training of the eye in taking in a 
number of words at a glance — a mechanical process; 
then the interpretation of these groups of words — 
a mental process; next the making known of the 
ideas thus obtained to others, by means of the voice 
—also a mechanical process. 

The children need special help in each step. We 
are apt to overdo one at the expense of the others. 

I. Eye-training is the foundation of all good read- 
ing. Various devices are resorted to in obtaining it. 
We will suggest a few, not new at all, but useful. 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING l8l 

{a) A strip of cardboard, on which is a clause or 
sentence, is held before the class, for a moment only, 
and then removed. The length of the task is in- 
creased as the eye becomes trained to this kind of 
work. 

(b) The children open their books at a signal from 
the teacher, glance through a line, or part of one, 
indicated by the teacher, close book at once and give 
the line. 

(c) The teacher places on the board clauses or 
sentences bearing on the lesson, and covers with a 
map. The map is rolled up to show one of these, 
which is almost immediately erased. The children 
are then asked to give it. The map is then rolled 
up higher, exposing another, which also is speedily 
erased — and so on until all have been given to the 
children and erased. 

2. The child needs not only to be able to recognize 
groups of words, but he must be able to get thought 
from them. The following are some devices to that 
end: — 

(a) Suggestive pictures can be made use of to 
advantage all through the primary grades. If the 
child reads part of the story in the picture, and finds 
it interesting, he will want to read from the printed 
page the part not given in the picture. 

(b) Where there is no picture — or even where 
there is one — an aim may be useful to arouse interest 
in the thought, i.e. a thoughtful question may be put 



1 82 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

by the teacher, which the children can answer only 
by reading the story ; e.g. in the supplementary 
reader, " Easy Steps for Little Feet," is found the 
story of " The Pin and Needle." There is no picture. 
The teacher says, as the class are seated : " Now we 
have a story about a big quarrel between a pin and a 
needle over the question, 'Which one is the better 
fellow ? ' Of what could the needle boast ? Of what 
the pin ? Let us see which won." 

{c) Let all the pupils look through one or more 
paragraphs, reading silently, to get the thought, 
before any one is called upon to read aloud. If a 
child comes to a word that he does not know, during 
the silent reading, the teacher helps him to get it — 
from the context if possible — if not, by the sounds 
of the letters which compose it. 

As each child finishes the task assigned, he raises 
his eyes from the book, showing by this act that he 
is ready to tell what he has just read. The thought 
may be given by the child in his own language to 
assure the teacher that he has it. Usually, however, 
in the lower grades, this is unnecessary, the language 
of the book being nearly as simple as his own. 

The advantage of having all the pupils kept busy, 
instead of one alone who might be called upon to 
read the paragraph, is evident. Every child reads 
silently all of the lesson. Time would not permit 
that this be done orally, were it advisable to do so. 
When the child gets up to read, he is not Hkely to 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 83 

Stumble, for he has both the thought and the expres- 
sion for it, at the start. 

While aiming to have the children comprehend the 
thought, the teacher should not forget, on the other 
hand, that this is the reading hour, and not the time 
for much oral instruction and reproduction. There 
are other recitations in which the child is trained to 
free oral expression of thought, as in science and 
literature. Such offhand oral expression of his own 
ideas is not the primary aim of the reading lesson. 
Its purpose is to lend life to the recitation. 

3. Steps I and 2 deal with preparation for the read- 
ing. Up to this time, no oral reading has been done. 
Now we are ready to begin. 

Children will generally express the thought with 
the proper emphasis if they not only see its meaning 
but also feel it. Suppose the children are interested 
in the thought of the piece, they still fail, sometimes, 
to give the proper emphasis. How can the teacher, 
by questioning, get them to realize the more important 
part of the thought ? 

{a) The teacher has gone deeper into the mean- 
ing than have the children. Her questions should 
be such as to make real to the children the more 
emphatic part of the thought; e.g. in the Riverside 
Primer we have, ** Poor Bun, good dog, did you think 
I meant to hit you } " John reads, ** Do you think I 
meant to hit you ? " The teacher says, '* I will be 
Bun, John. What is it that you do not want Bun to 



1 84 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

think ? " (" That I meant to hit him.") " But you 
did mean to hit something. What was it you did not 
mean to hit ? Tell Bun." (** I did not mean to hit 
yoti^) Now ask him if he thought that you did. 
(" Did you think I meant to hit you f ") 

{U) When the story is in the form of a dialogue, 
the children may personate the characters in the 
story. Thus, getting into the real spirit of the piece, 
their emphasis will naturally fall where it properly 
belongs. 

{c) Sometimes the teacher will find it necessary to 
show the child how to read a passage properly, by 
reading it himself. It is seldom best to do this — 
certainly not if the correct expression can be reached 
through questioning. 

Many a teacher makes a practice of giving the 
proper emphasis to the child, he copying it from her 
voice. Frequently, children taught in this way can 
read one piece after another in their readers with 
excellent expression, but, when questioned, show that 
their minds are a blank as to the meaning of what 
they are reading. 

"* In working for expression, a great many teachers 
waste the time and energy of the pupils by indefinite 
directions. The emphasis is not correctly placed, so 
the teacher says, " I do not like that ; try it again, 
May." Now, May has no idea in what particular she 
has failed, so she gives it again, very likely as she 
gave it before, or she may put the emphasis on some 



•^ 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 85 

Other word, hoping by so doing to please the teacher. 
*' Why, no, May, you surely can do better than that," 
says the teacher. So May makes another fruitless 
attempt, when the teacher, disgusted, calls on another 
pupil to show her how to read. May has gained no 
clearer insight into the thought than she started out 
with, no power to grapple more successfully with a 
similar difficulty another time, and has lost, partly 
at least, her interest in the piece. She has been 
bothered and discouraged, and the class wearied. 

Sometimes when the expression is otherwise good, 
the children pitch their voices too high or too low. 
Natural tones must be insisted upon. A good aid to 
the children in this respect is the habitual example of 
quiet, clear tones in the teacher. 

Another fault of otherwise good reading is a fail- 
ure to enunciate distinctly. Children are inclined to 
slight many sounds, especially at the end of the 
words, and the teacher is apt to think : "That doesn't 
make so very much difference, since they are only 
children. When they are older they will see that 
their pronunciation is babyish, and adopt a correct 
form." This is unsound reasoning. Every time the 
child says las for last he is estabUshing more firmly 
a habit, to overcome which will give him much 

difficulty. 

In the pronunciation of words as well as in the 
reading of a sentence, much time is wasted through 
failure to point out the exact word, and the syllable 



1 86 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

in the word, in which the mistake has been made. 
The child cannot improve unless he knows in what 
particular there is room for improvement. 

Children in primary grades should be supplied with 
a good variety of primers, readers, and simple story 
books. In the course of their work they should read 
through a number of first, second, and third readers. 
Much of this reading should be simple and easy, so 
that they can move rapidly through a book, and gain 
confidence and satisfaction from it. In each grade 
there should be several sets of readers, which can be 
turned to as the occasion may demand. It is much 
better to read a new reader, involving in the main the 
same vocabulary, than to reread an old book. This 
use of several books in each grade adds to the interest 
and reduces to a minimum the mere drills, which are 
to be avoided as much as possible. 

SUMMARY 

I. Let children read under the impulse of strong 
and interesting thought. 

(a) The previous oral treatment of the stories 
now used as reading lessons will help this thought 
impulse. 

(d) An aim concretely stated, and touching an inter- 
esting thought in the lesson, will give impetus to the 
work. 

(c) Let children pass judgment on the truth, worth, 
or beauty of what they read. 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 8/ 

{d) Clear mental pictures of people, actions, places, 
etc., conduce to vigor of thought. To this end the 
teacher should use good pictures, make sketches, and 
give descriptions or explanations. Children should 
also be allowed to sketch freely at the board. 

2. Children should be encouraged constantly to 
help themselves in interpreting new words and sen- 
tences in reading. 

{a) By looking through the new sentence and mak- 
ing it out, if possible, for themselves before any one 
reads it aloud. 

{b) By analyzing a new word into its sounds, and 
then combining them to get its pronunciation. 

{c) By interpreting a new word from its context, or 
by the first sound or syllable. 

{d) By using the new powers of the letters as fast 
as they are learned in interpreting new words. 

{e) By trying the different sounds of a letter to a 
new word to see which seems to fit best. 

(/) By recognizing familiar words in new sentences 
with a different context. 

{g) See that every child reads the sentences in the 
new lesson for himself. 

3. There should be a gradual introduction to the 
elementary sounds (powers of the letters). 

The first words analyzed should be simple and 
phonetic in spelling, as dog, hen, cat, etc. 

New sounds of letters are taught as the children 
need them in studying out new words. 



1 88 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Very little attention needs to be given to learning 
the names of the letters. 

There need be little use of diacritical markings in 
early reading. 

4. Many of the new words will occur in connection 
with the picture at the head of the lesson. Place 
these on the board as they come up. 

If the teacher will weave these words into her conver- 
sation, they will give the children little future trouble. 

5. All the different phases of the phonic, word, and 
sentence method should be woven together by a skil- 
ful teacher. 

6. The close attention of all the members of the 
class, so that each reads through the whole lesson, 
should be an ever-present aim of the teacher. 

7. Children should be trained to grasp several 
words at a glance : — 

(a) By quick writing and erasure of words and 
sentences at the board. 

(b) By exposing for an instant sentences covered 
by a screen. 

(c) By the use of phrases or short sentences on 
cardboard. 

(d) By questions for group thought. 

These tests should increase in difficulty with grow- 
ing skill. » 

8. Spend but little time in the oral reproduction of 
stories. Practice in good reading and interpretation 
is" the main thing. 



METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 89 

9. Children, from the first, should be encouraged 
to articulate distinctly in oral reading. Let the 
teacher begin at home. 

10. Let the teacher cultivate a pleasing tone of 
voice, not loud or harsh. This will help the children 
to the same. 

11. Vigorous and forcible expression is secured : — 

(a) By having interesting stories. 

(b) By apt questions, to bring out the emphatic 
thought. 

(c) By dramatizing the scenes of the story. 

(d) By occasional examples of lively reading by 
the teacher. 

(e) By definiteness in questioning. 



CHAPTER VIII 
List of Books for Primary Grades 

In selecting reading books for primary grades the 
purpose is to find those which will give the readiest 
mastery of the printed forms of speech. 

For this purpose books need to be well graded and 
interesting. Primary teachers have expended their 
utmost skill upon such simple, attractive, and inter- 
esting books for children. Pictorial illustration has 
added to the clearness and beauty of the books, so 
that, with the rivalry of many large pubhshing 
houses, we now have a great variety of good primary 
books to select from. 

The earliest and simplest of these are the primers, 
which, followed by the first readers, give the most 
necessary drills upon the forms of easy words and 
sentences. Great care has been taken to give an 
easy regular grading so as to let a child help himself 
as much as possible. But as soon as children, by 
blackboard exercises and by means of primers, 
have gained a mastery of the simpler words and the 
powers of the letters, the Mother Goose rhymes, the 
fables and fairy tales (already f amiUar to the children 

190 



LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES IQI 

in oral work) are introduced into their reading books 
in the simplest possible forms. 

The use of interesting rhymes and stories in this early 
reading is the only means of giving it a lively content 
and of thus securing interest and concentration of 
thought. Good primary teachers have been able in 
this way to relieve the reading lessons of their tedium, 
and, what is equally good, have strengthened the inter- 
est of the children in the best literature of childhood. 

Besides the choicest fables and fairy tales, many 
of the simpler nature myths and even such longer 
poems and stories as " Hiawatha," " Robinson Cru- 
soe," and " Ulysses " have been used with happy re- 
sults as reading books in the first three years. There 
are also certain collections of children's poems, such 
as Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verses," Field's 
" Love-songs of Childhood," Sherman's " Little Folk 
Lyrics," "Old Ballads in Prose," "The Listening 
Child," and others, which may suggest the beauty and 
variety of choice literary materials which are now 
easily within the reach of teachers and children in 
primary schools. 

There is no longer any doubt that little folk in 
primary classes may reap the full benefit of a close 
acquaintance with these favorite songs, stories, and 
poems, and that in the highest educative sense the 
effect is admirable. 

In the following list the books for each grade are 
arranged into three groups : — 



192 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

First. A series of choicest books and those exten- 
sively used and well adapted for the grade as regular 
reading exercises. 

Second. A supplementary list of similar quality 
and excellence, but somewhat more difficult. 

They may, in some cases, serve as substitutes for 
those given in the first group. 

Third. A collection of books for teachers, partly 
similar in character to those mentioned in the two 
previous groups and partly of a much wider, profes- 
sional range in literature, history, and nature. Some 
books of child-study, psychology, and pedagogy are 
also included. The problems of the primary teacher 
are no longer limited to the small drills and exercises 
in spelling and reading, but comprehend many of the 
most interesting and far-reaching questions of educa- 
tion. It is well, therefore, for the primary teacher to 
become acquainted not only with the great works of 
literature but with the best professional books in 
education. 

LIST OF CHOICE READING MATTER FOR 
THE GRADES 

FIRST GRADE — FIRST SERIES 

Cyr's Primer. Ginn & Co. 

Cyr's First Reader. Ginn & Co. 

Riverside Primer and First Reader. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Nature Stories for Young Readers (Plants). D. C. Heath & Co. 

Hiawatha Primer. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES 1 93 

Stepping Stones to Literature, Book I. Silver, Burdett, & Co. 

Child Life Primer. The Macmillan Co. 

Taylor's First Reader. Werner School Book Co. 

Arnold's Primer. Silver, Burdett, & Co. 

The Thought Reader. Ginn & Co. 

Sunbonnet Babies. Rand, McNally, & Co. 

Nature's By-ways. The Morse Co. 

Graded Classics, No. L B. F. Johnson Pub. Co. 

Graded Literature, No. L Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

First Reader (Hodskins). Ginn & Co. 

Baldwin's Primer (Kirk). American Book Co. 



FIRST GRADE — SECOND SERIES 

Six Nursery Classics (O'Shea). D. C. Heath & Co. 

Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. Houghton, Mifflin, 

&Co. 
Stories for Children. American Book Co. 
Rhymes and Fables. University Publishing Co. 
The Finch First Reader. Ginn & Co. 
Baldwin's First Reader. American Book Co. 
Heart of Oak, No. I. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Choice Literature, Book I (Williams). Butler, Sheldon, & Co. 
Child Life, First Book. The Macmillan Co. 
Fables and Rhymes for Beginners. Ginn & Co. 



FIRST GRADE — FOR TEACHERS — THIRD SERIES 

A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Mother Goose). D. C. Heath & Co. 
The Adventures of a Brownie. Harper & Bros. 
Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. 
Talks for Kindergarten and Primary Schools (Wiltse). Ginn 

&Co. 
Hall's How to Teach Reading. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Place of the Story in Early Education (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. 
Methods of Teaching Reading (Branson). D. C. Heath & Co. 
o 



194 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Loweirs Books and Libraries. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Ruskin's Books and Reading. In Sesame and Lilies. 
Lectures to Kindergartners (Peabody). D. C. Heath & Co. 
Mother Goose (Denslow). McClure, Phillips, & Co. 
Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories. J. L. Hammett 

&Co. 
The Study of Children and their School Training (Warner). 

The Macmillan Co. 
The Story Hour (Kate Douglas Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, 

&Co. 
Trumpet and Drum (Eugene Field). Scribner's Sons. 
A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson). Scrib- 

ner's Sons. 
Treetops and Meadows. The Public School Publishing Co., 

Bloomington, 111. 
Songs from the Nest (Emily Huntington Miller). Kindergarten 

Literature Co. 
The Moral Instruction of Children (Felix Adler). D. Appleton 

&Co. 
Children's Rights (Kate Douglas Wiggin) . Houghton, Mifflin, 

&Co. 
The Story of Patsy (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
First Book of Birds (Miller). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 



SECOND GRADE — FIRST SERIES 

Nature Stories for Young Readers (continued). D. C. Heath 

&Co. 
Easy Steps for Little Feet. American Book Co. 
Classic Stories for Little Ones. Public School Publishing Co., 

Bloomington, 111. 
Verse and Prose for Beginners. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co, 
Cyr's Second Reader. Ginn & Co. 
Stepping Stones to Literature, Book II. 
Pets and Companions (Stickney). Ginn & Co. 
Child Life, Second Book. The Macmillan Co, 



LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES I95 

Nature Myths and Stories for Little Ones (Cooke). A. Flanagan 
&Co. 
The preceding books are for second and third grades. 

Around the World, Book I. The Morse Co. 

Graded Classics, No. II. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. 

Graded Literature, No. II. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Welsh). D. C. Heath & Co. 

Book of Nature Myths (Holbrook). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

SECOND GRADE — SECOND SERIES 

Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. 

German Fairy Tales (Grimm). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Fables and Folk Lore (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Nature Stories for Young Readers — Animals. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Danish Fairy Tales (Andersen). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Baldwin's Second Reader. American Book Co. 

Choice Literature, Book II (Williams). Butler, Sheldon, & Co. 

Fairy Tale and Fable (Thompson). The Morse Co. 

Fairy Stories and Fables (Baldwin). American Book Co. 

Plant Babies and Their Cradles. Educational Publishing Co. 

^sop's Fables. Educational Publishing Co. 

Story Reader. American Book Co. 

Open Sesame, Part I. Ginn & Co. 

The above are excellent selections for second, third, and fourth 
grades. 

Songs and Stories. University Publishing Co. 
Love Songs of Childhood (Field). Scribner's Sons. 

SECOND GRADE — FOR TEACHERS 

Poetry for Children (Eliot). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
The Story Hour (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Story of Hiawatha. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 
Round the Year in Myth and Song (Holbrook). American 
Book Co. 



196 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

Old Ballads in Prose (Tappan). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

St. Nicholas Christmas Book. Century Co., New York. 

Asgard Stories (Foster-Cummings) . Silver, Burdett, & Co. 

Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them (Mrs. Bell). Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. 

Little Folk Lyrics (Sherman). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Readings in Folk Lore (Skinner). American Book Co. 

Nature Pictures by American Poets. The Macmillan Co. 

Squirrels and Other Fur-bearers (Burroughs). Houghton, Mif- 
flin, & Co. 

Seven Great American Poets (Hart). Silver, Burdett, & Co. 

Early Training of Children (Malleson). D. C. Heath & Co. 

Comenius's The School of Infancy. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Krlisi's Life of Pestalozzi. American Book Co. 

Development of the Child (Oppenheim). The Macmillan Co. 

The Study of Child Nature (Elizabeth Harrison). Published by 
Chicago Kindergarten College. 

Listening Child (Thatcher). The Macmillan Co. 

History and Literature (Rice). A. Flanagan & Co. 



THIRD GRADE — FIRST SERIES 

Robinson Crusoe. Public School Publishing Co. 

Golden Book of Choice Reading. American Book Co. 

.rEsop's Fables (Stickney). Ginn & Co. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales, Part I. Ginn & Co. 

Seven Little Sisters. Ginn & Co. 

Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Fairy Stories and Fables. American Book Co. 

Child Life, Third Reader. The Macmillan Co. 

Grimm's German Household Tales. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Fables (published as leaflets). C. M. Parker, Taylorville, 111. 

Around the World, Book II. The Morse Co. 

Graded Classics, No. III. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. 

Graded Literature, No. III. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales. Educational Publishing Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES IO7 

Grimm's Fairy Tales (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. 

Nature Myths and Stories for Little Ones (Cooke). A. Flanagan 

&Co. 
Fairy Tales in Verse and Prose (Rolfe). American Book Co. 

THIRD GRADE — SECOND SERIES 

Arabian Nights. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Hans Andersen's Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Fairy Tales in Verse and Prose (Rolfe) . Harper & Bros. 

Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children. Ginn & Co. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales, Part II. Ginn & Co. 

Open Sesame, Part I. Ginn & Co. 

Judd's Classic Myths. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales, Part II. Ginn & Co. 

The Eugene Field Book (Burt). Scribner's Sons. 

A Child's Garden of Verses. Rand, McNally, & Co. 

Little Lame Prince (Craik). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Prose and Verse for Children (Pyle). American Book Co. 

Book of Tales. American Book Co. 



THIRD GRADE -FOR TEACHERS 

Stories from the History of Rome. The Macmillan Co. 

Friends and Helpers (Eddy). Ginn & Co. 

Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe (Yonge). The Macmillan Co. 

Robinson Crusoe. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Arabian Nights, Aladdin, etc. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 

Bird's Christmas Carol (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Uncle Remus (Harris). D. Appleton & Co. 

Fifty Famous Stories Retold (Baldwin). American Book Co. 

Four Great Americans (Baldwin). Werner School Book Co. 

Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans (Eggleston) 

American Book Co. 
The Story of Lincoln (Cavens). Public School Publishing Co. 
Among the Farmyard People (Pierson). E. P. Dutton & Co. 



198 SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 

The Howells Story Book (Burt). Scribner's Sons. 

The Jungle Book (Kipling). Century Co., New York. 

Old Norse Stories (Bradish). American Book Co. 

Little Brothers of the Air (Miller). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Hans Brinker (Mary Mapes Dodge). Century Co. 

Black Beauty. University Publishing Co. 

Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

Wonder Book (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

The Story of the Wagner Opera. Scribner's Sons. 

Thoughts on Education (Locke). The Macmillan Co. 

The Education of Man (Froebel). D. Appleton & Co. 

Childhood in Literature and Art (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, 

&Co. 
Waymarks for Teachers (Arnold). Silver, Burdett, & Co. 
Hailman's History of Pedagogy. American Book Co. 



SERIES OF SELECT READERS FOR THE 
GRADES 

Child Life. The Macmillan Co. 
Around the World. The Morse Co. 
Baldwin's Readers. American Book Co. 
Graded Classics. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. 
Graded Literature. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 
Stepping Stones to Literature. Silver, Burdett, & Co. 
Lights to Literature. Rand, McNally, & Co. 
The Heart of Oak Series. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Choice Literature. Butler, Sheldon, & Co. 



METHODS IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

A Series of Educational Books in Two Groups covering the General 

Principles of Method and Its Special Applications to the 

Common School 

BY 

CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D* 
Northern Illinois State Normal School, DeKald, Illinois 

WITH 

F. M. McMURRY 

AS JOINT AUTHOR FOR METHOD OF RECITATION 

I. BOOKS OF GENERAL METHOD IN EDUCATION 

The three books in this group deal with the fundamental, com- 
prehensive principles of Education for the school as a whole, 
and include both instruction and management. 

n. BOOKS OF SPECIAL METHOD IN COMMON SCHOOL 

STUDIES. Each school study is treated in a separate book, 
and the selection and arrangement of material, and the method 
of instruction appropriate to that study throughout its course, 
are fully discussed. Illustrative lessons and extensive lists of 
books of special value as helps to teachers and schools are 
included. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 

BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 

100 Boylston St. 378-388 Wabash Ave. Empire Build'g 319-325 Sansome St. 

I 



GENERAL METHOD IN EDUCATION 

THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

BASED ON THE IDEAS OF HERBART 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

New edition, revised and enlarged. Cloth. 12mo. 331 pp. 
90 cents net, postage 10 cents 

This volume discusses fully the controlling principles of our progres- 
sive modern education, such as The Aim of Education; The Materials 
and Sources of Moral Training ; The Relative Value of Studies in the 
School Course ; The Nature and Value of Interest as a Vital Element 
in Instruction ; The Correlation of Studies ; Inductive and Deductive 
Processes as Fundamental to All Thinking ; Apperception, its Close 
and Constant Application to the Process of Learning ; The Will, its 
Training and Function and its Close Relation to Other Forms of 
Mental Action. 

The book closes with an account of Herbart and his disciples in 
Germany, and a summary of their pronounced ideas and influence 
upon education. 

THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION 

New edition, revised and enlarged 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY and FRANK M. McMURRY 

Cloth. 12mo. 339 pp. 90 cents net, postage 10 cents 

This book, as a whole, is designed to simplify, organize, and illustrate 
the chief principles of class-room method in elementary schools. A few 
important fundamental principles are carefully worked out as a basis. 
The essential steps, in the acquisition of knowledge in all studies, are 
worked out and applied to different branches. The developing method 
of instruction so much used in the oral treatment of lessons is worked 
out, and the method of careful and suitable questioning discussed. 

Two chapters are given, consisting of Illustrative Lessons selected 
from the different studies and worked out in full, as examples of a right 
method. In these examples, and also in the discussions, the applica- 
tion of the principles of apperception, interest, induction, and deduc- 
tion to class-room work are shown. The peculiar application of these 
various principles to different studies is carefully discussed. 



SCHOOL AND CLASS MANAQEflENT — In Preparation 

2 



JUL 27 



LSBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 843 588 



